- President Joe Biden’s advisers continue to defend the aging president as “sharp” and mentally prepared for another term.
- Democrats are increasingly alarmed by Biden’s age as the 2024 campaign season begins in earnest.
- A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll shows that 86% of Americans believe 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 in an Amtrak expert during a conversation he had with the president about trains.
Buttigieg’s comment is the latest effort by the Biden administration to reassure the public about the president’s mental abilities, despite growing public concern.
“He was asking such detailed questions that we had to call another Amtrak expert to get to some of the things he was asking about,” Buttigieg said in a Politico article published Wednesday.
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says Joe Biden is incredibly detailed and sharp.
US President Joe Biden has a passionate interest in rail infrastructure, having long traveled on the Amtrak train to his home in Delaware.
Buttigieg’s comment prompted White House communications director Ben LaBolt to weigh in on social media.
“This kind of thing happens all the time when reporting to @POTUS,” he wrote on X, highlighting Buttigieg’s quote.
Buttigieg now finds himself defending Biden, 81, despite having campaigned against him during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary with the message that new leadership was needed in the party.
Department of 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 because he is sharp, intensely inquisitive, detail-oriented and focused,” Mayorkas said.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas attends a House Homeland Security Committee hearing.
Vice President Kamala Harris also came to Biden’s defense last week, arguing that the president was “front and center” during the “countless hours” she recently spent with the president.
The national co-chair of Biden’s campaign also defended the president on ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday.
“I’m telling you this guy is tough, he’s smart and he’s on his game,” Landrieu said.
Biden’s team continues to reassure the public after special counsel Robert Hur’s report referred to the president as an “old man with a bad memory.”
Biden also made a series of errors during public appearances last week, referring to recent conversations with world leaders who died several years ago and mistakenly referring to the president of Egypt as the president of Mexico.
He defended his physical and mental abilities during an afternoon press conference.
“I mean well, I’m an old man and I know what the hell I’m doing,” he angrily told reporters.