Kamala Harris rejects claims that Biden, 80, is too old to run

Vice President Kamala Harris argued Wednesday that Joe Biden is not too old to be president and said she will stand by him if he runs again, despite criticism from Democrats over his lack of achievement in the White House.

“I think age is more than a chronological fact,” Harris told ABC’s Good Morning America of the 80-year-old commander-in-chief.

And she pushed back on her own critics, saying clearly that she will remain Biden’s running mate.

“The president has said that he intends to run, and if he does, I will run with him,” he told CBS Mornings. “I take the job very seriously and am honored to serve.”

Harris took to morning shows to defend Biden after many Republicans criticized his claims in his speech on the border, the drug crisis and his comments on Medicare and Social Security. The night turned contentious with Republicans yelling and calling Biden a “liar” as the president backed off, engaging in verbal spats with the GOP.

But the vice president has faced a new round of critics of her own, who question the accomplishments she has made in the administration and argue that she is not an effective advocate for the president, which is a key role for the vice president.

She shrugged, telling CBS: “I appreciate it, thank you. I’m pretty good, thanks for asking.

Biden has not officially announced his candidacy for a second term, but everything indicates that he is heading in that direction.

He leaves Wednesday for a traditional post-State of the Union tour, where presidents head out to the country to sell their vision of the country’s future.

The stops for him and his surrogates are all key states in the upcoming presidential election: Biden will be in Wisconsin on Wednesday and Florida on Thursday; Harris will be in Georgia on Wednesday and Jill Biden will be in Arizona on Sunday.

The president’s public approval rating was 41% in a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll that closed on Sunday, near the lowest level of his presidency.

That could be a potential hurdle for any re-election bid.

And his age remains a concern. At 80 years old, he is the oldest president in history.

If he wins a second term, he would be 82 at his second inauguration and 86 at the end of his term.

The travel spree will test Biden’s stamina. He will be traveling a lot more after spending most of the 2020 campaign hosting zoom events from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, due to the COVID pandemic.

The president is scheduled to have his annual physical next week, but the White House doctor declared him healthy after last year.

Republicans are expected to make his age a big issue in the election. And much of his 2024 fire is expected to be directed at Harris, 58, and his suitability to take over if anything happens to Biden.

Even some Democrats worry that it will be a drag on the candidacy.

“That will be, in my opinion, one of the strongest arguments against Biden,” John Morgan, a prominent fundraiser for the Democrats, told the New York Times recently.

“It doesn’t take a genius to say, ‘Look, at his age, we have to really think about this.'”

His record in office, he added, did not help.

“I can’t think of one thing he’s ever done except stay out of the way and be by his side at certain ceremonies,” he said.

Biden gave Harris a long list of tasks to tackle, including migrating the root causes of migration. She has struggled in those roles, but her supporters say they were difficult issues that would challenge any politician.

But Harris has made missteps of her own, including an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt where she made a fuss explaining the administration’s plan to secure the border.

She has been most successful in leading the administration’s response to secure reproductive rights after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.