- President Joe Biden’s aides continue to defend the aging president as “sharp” and mentally prepared for a new term
- Democrats are increasingly concerned about Biden’s age as the 2024 campaign season begins in earnest
- A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll shows that 86% of Americans think Biden is too old to serve another term as president.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg argued Wednesday that President Joe Biden was so mentally sharp that he had to call an Amtrak expert during a conversation he had with the president about trains.
Buttigieg’s comment is the Biden administration’s latest attempt to reassure the public about the president’s mental capabilities, despite growing public concern.
“He asked such detailed questions that we actually had to bring in another expert from Amtrak to understand the things he was asking about,” Buttigieg said in a Politico article published Wednesday.
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg claims Joe Biden is incredibly detail-oriented and sharp.
US President Joe Biden has a passionate interest in rail infrastructure, having traveled to his home in Delaware on the Amtrak train for years.
Buttigieg’s comment prompted White House communications director Ben LaBolt to intervene on social media
“Things like this happen all the time while briefing @POTUS,” he wrote on X, highlighting Buttigieg’s quote.
Buttigieg must now defend the 81-year-old Biden, despite campaigning against him during the 2020 Democratic presidential elections on the message that new leadership was needed in the party.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also praised Biden’s mental abilities during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
“The most difficult part of a meeting with President Biden is preparing for it, because he is sharp, intensely probing, detailed and focused,” Mayorkas said.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas attends a House Homeland Security hearing
Vice President Kamala Harris also stepped up to defend Biden last week, arguing that the president was “front and on top of everything” during the “countless hours” she recently spent with the president.
The Biden campaign’s national co-chair also defended the president on “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
“I’m telling you this guy is tough, he’s smart, he’s on his game,” Landrieu said.
Biden’s team continues to reassure the public after special counsel Robert Hur’s report called the president an “older man with a bad memory.”
Biden also made a series of mistakes during public appearances last week, referencing recent conversations with world leaders who died several years ago and incorrectly referring to the president of Egypt as the president of Mexico.
He defended his mental and physical abilities during an evening press conference.
“I mean well, I’m an older man and I know what I’m doing,” he said angrily to reporters.