Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he doesn’t believe President Joe Biden is “too old” to be president following the release of a special counsel report that cast doubt on his memory.
“BIDEN IS NOT TOO OLD, HE’S TOO INCOMPETENT!” President Trump wrote.
So far, the former president has eschewed going after President Biden’s age, 81, or the verbal slip-ups he’s made. Several months ago, President Trump told Megyn Kelly that he doesn’t think the current president’s age is a concern.
“You look at some of the great world leaders. They were in their 80s and they did, I mean, [Winston] Churchill, so many people, they were phenomenal in their 80s,” he stated. “You know, there’s a great wisdom if you’re not in a position like him. But if you go back 25 years, he wasn’t the sharpest tack either.”
Americans Still Worried
However, his comments have not assuaged Americans, as polls have shown. An Ipsos-ABC News poll released on Feb. 11 shows that 86 percent of respondents believe President Biden is too old to serve another term in office.Meanwhile, President Trump did focus on the special counsel’s report regarding President Biden’s memory. He posted on Truth Social on Feb. 10, quoting an Associated Press report that stated “the report repeatedly pointed to Biden’s hazy memory in language that has raised new concerns about the president’s competency and age - a top concern for voters.”
The report described President Biden’s memory as “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor,” and having “significant limitations.” It noted that the president could not recall defining milestones in his own life such as when his son Beau died or when he served as vice president.
In response, President Biden said the report’s descriptions of his memory and his son’s death were “extraneous commentary” that “had no place in this report.” About his son’s death, he said, “How in the hell dare he raise that?”
“Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself, it wasn’t any of their damn business,” he said. “Every Memorial Day we hold a service remembering him, attended by friends and family and the people who loved him. I don’t need anyone, I don’t need anyone to remind me when he passed away.”
White House Claims Political Motivation
A day later, Vice President Kamala Harris and other White House officials criticized the special counsel’s report, claiming it was politically motivated.“The way that the president’s demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and (is) clearly politically motivated,” the vice president said, according to a White House pool report.
A spokesman for the White House, Ian Sams, said the special counsel, Robert Hur, who is a Republican, was influenced by political factors.
“We’re in a very pressurized political environment. And when you are the first special counsel in history not to indict anybody, there is pressure to criticize and to make, you know, statements that may be and otherwise you wouldn’t make,” Mr. Sams told reporters over the weekend.
The White House also pushed back on the characterizations of President Biden’s memory in a Feb. 5 letter from the president’s lawyers that was published in the special counsel’s report. The letter argues that President Biden’s “inability to recall dates or details of events that happened years ago is neither surprising nor unusual,” particularly about when certain documents were packed or moved.
“We do not believe that the report’s treatment of President Biden’s memory is accurate or appropriate,” a White House letter said. “The report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events. Such comments have no place in a Department of Justice report.”
The White House has also said they will deal with the age concerns during the 2024 campaign by focusing on what they describe as accomplishments, including infrastructure programs and job growth.
“We’re going to continue to focus on what this president has been able to get done,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday about the concerns.
