Joe Biden tackled the taboo subject of his 2024 presidential candidacy head-on on Wednesday: he is already the oldest president in American history and he will be 86 at the end of his second term if he takes it away.
The Democratic president rarely talks about his age. But polls show it's a factor that worries a vast majority of voters, and one that will inevitably be used against it by its competitors. The day after the launch of his campaign in a three-minute video broadcast at 6 a.m., Joe Biden, 80, thought it normal for people to ask questions.
Asked about the subject during a joint press conference with his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol at the White House, he admitted to having asked himself many questions. “I get people wondering. I would wonder myself. I questioned myself before deciding to campaign,” he replied.
“I feel good,” added Joe Biden, saying he had enough energy to campaign while performing one of the most demanding jobs in the world. "I'm excited about this prospect. People will see,” the US president continued. "They'll follow an election campaign and they'll decide whether I have what it takes or not," he added, before joking about his age: "I don't even know how old I am. I can't tell, it doesn't hit. »
The only way Joe Biden usually addresses the question of his age is with light-hearted jokes about his long political background — he served 36 years in the Senate before becoming Barack Obama's vice president for eight years. But that does not make voters laugh. If the democrat displays an unusual endurance, juggling between international crises and major reforms, his main handicap remains his age.
According to a recent NBC News poll, 70% of Americans — including 51% of Democrats — believe Joe Biden should not run in 2024. And 69% of those opposed to his candidacy cite his age as a deciding factor. or significant.
Donald Trump, 76, is currently emerging as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination despite his legal troubles. Accused of having bought the silence of an actress of X movies, he is also under the threat of investigations into his electoral pressure in Georgia in 2020 and the management of classified archives of the White House.
An ex-news columnist accused him in New York civil court on Tuesday of raping her in the mid-1990s. When asked on Wednesday if he considered himself the only person capable of beating Donald Trump , the Democratic President replied, “I may not be the only one, but I know him well and I know the danger he poses to our democracy. "We've been through all of this before," he pointed out.
