President Biden acknowledged concerns about his age and discussed his legacy in an interview with USA Today in the Oval Office, still claiming he would have won another term if he’d run against Donald Trump but admitting he’s not sure if he could have lasted four more years.
“Do you think you would’ve had the vigor to serve another four years in office?” USA Today’s Susan Page asked.
“I don’t know,” Biden said. “That’s why I thought when I first announced, talking to Barack [Obama] about it, I said I thought I was the person. I had no intention of running after [my son] Beau died – for real, not a joke. And then when Trump was running again for re-election, I really thought I had the best chance of beating him.”
“But I also wasn’t looking to be president when I was 85 years old, 86 years old. And so I did talk about passing the baton,” Biden added, reflecting on concerns over his age, especially before he dropped out of the presidential race.
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Multiple media reports, including from the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, have included interviews with current and former White House staffers who expressed serious doubts over the 82-year-old Biden’s stamina.
“But I don’t know,” the president went on. “Who the hell knows? So far, so good. But who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old?”
The president’s words appeared to be a stark admission that despite his repeated claims before dropping out that he was in great shape, he realized his own limits as the oldest president in American history.
Biden again said he believed he could have beaten Trump in a rematch. The president announced that he was leaving the race following his shaky debate performance against him in June that laid bare the cognitive issues that many of his supporters had denied or shielded. He ultimately endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who went on to lose the general election.
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Biden’s comments were in the context of a discussion about his legacy as president.
“And so I hope that history says that I came in and I had a plan how to restore the economy and reestablish America’s leadership in the world,” the president said. “That was my hope.”
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Biden argued that an advantage of his age is his experience with world leaders and with historical changes in different regions of the world.
“And I think the only advantage of being an old guy is that I’ve known every major world leader for a long time,” Biden said.
“And so I had a perspective on each of them and their interests,” he continued. “And so I think it helped me navigate some of the fundamental changes taking place, whether it’s in Europe, in Latin America, in the Middle East, in the Far East. And anyway, that’s what I hope anyway, that I’m viewed in that context.”
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