President Joe Biden says he “took a hard look” at his own age as he contemplated whether to seek reelection, marking his first substantive response to a question about his decision to run for president again since he announced his 2024 bid on Tuesday.
“(The American electorate is) going to see a race, and they’re going to judge whether or not I have it or don’t have it. I respect them taking a hard look at it. I take a hard look at it as well – I took a hard look at it before I decided to run, and I feel good, I feel excited about the prospects,” Biden said when pressed on his age during a joint press conference on Wednesday alongside South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at the White House.
At 80 years old, Biden is the oldest president in American history, and if reelected, he would be 86 when ending his second term. It’s been a looming political issue for the president, with polls consistently reflecting concern about his age, even among Democrats, before a reelection run was announced.
“With regard to age, I can’t even say I guess how old I am. I can’t even say the number – it doesn’t register with me,” he joked.
The 2024 campaign was the topic of one of just a small handful of questions Biden fielded at the joint press conference alongside Yoon, who was at the White House as part of a state visit.
The scheduling of the state visit at the White House a day after Biden’s reelection announcement was coincidental, according to officials familiar with the planning. But the set-pieces of American diplomacy – pulled out to reaffirm the US-South Korean alliance – happen to serve Biden’s own purposes, reflecting a strategy of using the trappings of the presidency to lend its current incumbent a degree political capital.
It’s something Biden’s political team hopes to harness as he seeks a second term, according…
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