Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) downplayed the age of fellow octogenarian President Biden on Sunday, recalling a recent meeting in which the 80-year-old commander-in-chief “seemed fine.”
“I met with the president, I don’t know, five or six weeks ago. We had a big discussion. Sounded good to me,” Sanders told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
Sanders, 81, brought up a number of issues including abortion, climate change, the minimum wage, pharmaceutical industry reform and more that he believes voters will seriously consider in the 2024 presidential election.
“When people look at a candidate, whether it’s Joe Biden, Trump, Bernie Sanders or anyone else, they have to look at a whole host of factors,” he said.
Thirty-seven percent of Democratic and independent voters said Biden’s age makes them less likely to support him, while 56 percent said it didn’t make a difference, according to a June USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll.
President Biden enjoys a smoothie after a pilates and spinning class in Lake Tahoe.AP
Biden has long wrestled with questions about his age.
At 80, he is already the oldest president in history. He will be 82 at the start of a second term, should he win re-election, and 86 when he finishes.
“I don’t realize it”, Biden told reporters about his age in April. “But the only thing I can say is that one of the things that people will discover is that they will watch a race and judge whether I have it or not. .”
Some Republican critics like Nikki Haley have called for mental cognitive tests for older politicians.AP
But the president has also acknowledged that his age is a “legitimate concern.”
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Many conservative critics have pointed to a number of gaffes on his part, such as suggesting that his administration plans to build “a railway from the Pacific to the other side of the Indian Ocean.”
Last year, during a conference, he caught the eye of the late Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), who had been killed in a car accident.
So far, the Republican favorite for 2024 is former President Donald Trump, 77. Biden retains a 1.4% lead over Trump in the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate.
Sanders, who is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, which Biden won, recently gave a political speech in New Hampshire. He urged Democrats to veer to the left in the upcoming election.
“Biden has every right to be proud of a long series of accomplishments. The point of my comments is that you can’t just, as president of the United States, rest on your laurels,” Sanders said Sunday.
“My message yesterday to the Democrats, not just the president, is if you want to do well in this election, talk about the needs of the American people,” he continued, “have the guts to take on the big money.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn