Joe Biden, 81, jokes: ‘I’ve been around for a while…I remember that!’ after the Justice Department calls him an “older man with a bad memory” and 86 percent of Americans say he’s too old to start running again

President Joe Biden joked about his age on Monday after a special counsel report questioned his memory. A new poll shows that a majority of Americans think he is too old to run for a second term.

“I know it doesn’t look like it, but I’ve been there for a while,” the president said during a speech to the National Association of Counties.

“I remember that,” the 81-year-old Biden added. The crowd of local officials laughed and cheered.

Biden’s tone was markedly different from the combative one he took last week after special counsel Robert Hur released his report, which included the politically embarrassing observation of Biden as a “well-meaning, older man with a bad memory.”

The president was in a joking mood Monday, but when the report came out Thursday, he made hastily planned remarks criticizing Hur for questioning his memory, including the death of his son Beau.

In the wake of the report, a large majority of American voters – 86 percent – ​​say Biden is too old for another term, a new poll found.

And 62 percent of respondents in the ABC News/Ipsos Polls show that former President Donald Trump, 77, is also too old for another term in the White House.

Fifty-nine percent of respondents say both of 2024’s top competitors are too old, while 27 percent think only the current president is old enough to be left out.

Biden is the oldest president in American history. He broke Trump’s record by eight years when he took office in January 2021 at the age of 78.

If Biden is elected to a second term, he would be 82 years old at the time of his inauguration.

The latest negative polling for Biden’s reelection bid comes after Thursday’s release of the long-awaited Justice Department report, which recommended no charges against the former president for his handling of classified documents.

More than 8.5 in 10 American voters think President Joe Biden is too old for another term – and only 62% think the same about Trump

Hur’s 345-page report said investigators found President Biden’s “memory was significantly impaired” during interviews with his ghostwriter and an interview with Hur’s office last year.

According to the report, Biden – during the 2023 interview – could not remember when his son Beau died or the years he was vice president.

“During his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse. He didn’t remember when he was vice president, forgot on the first day of the interview when his term ended (“if it was 2013, when did I stop being vice president?”), and forgot on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘am I still vice president in 2009?’),” the report said.

“He didn’t even remember his son Beau dying within a few years.”

Beau Biden, an Iraq War veteran who served as attorney general of Delaware, died in 2015 after a battle with brain cancer.

Biden was visibly angry last week when he refuted that.

“How on earth does he dare bring that up,” the president said Thursday evening from the diplomatic reception room at the White House. “Honestly, when I was asked that question, I thought to myself, ‘That was none of their damn business.’

“I don’t need anyone to remind me when he died,” Biden added.

“Every Memorial Day we hold a service to remember him, attended by friends and family and the people who loved him,” Biden said after a silence. “I don’t need anyone – I don’t need anyone to remind me when he died.”

Joe Biden is sworn in as vice president in January 2013 as wife Jill Biden and son Beau Biden watch him take the oath of office

Trump and his allies immediately seized on the report and its findings to question Biden’s fitness to serve in office.

“If Joe Biden isn’t fit to press charges, they’re not going to convict him of a crime, but is it OK for him to become commander in chief?” Trump said this last weekend during a rally in South Carolina.

“Biden is bad for democracy because he is plainly incompetent. … Plus, he’s using DOJ and FBI and everything he can to go after an adversary, and nothing like this has ever happened in this country.”