CNN Anchor Says Trump ‘Should Think Twice’ About Mocking Biden After Recent Gaffes — But Claims Trump ‘Presents’ Less Old

CNN anchor Kasie Hunt said ex-President Donald Trump “should think twice” about mocking President Joe Biden’s age after a string of recent gaffes — but also claimed Trump “presents” as less old than the president.

Biden’s campaign has been highlighting a raft of Trump gaffes recently — mixing up Biden and former President Barack Obama, misidentifying countries, not knowing what town he’s in to name a few — and pushing for the media to cover them like they do concerns about Biden’s age.

One person who has covered them is New York Times correspondent Michael Bender, who was a guest on Wednesday’s edition of CNN’s Early Start, to discuss his reporting.

“Former President Trump, of course, mocks President Biden for his age. Maybe he should think twice,” Hunt said as she teased the segment, in which she and Bender agree Trump’s gaffe could hurt him — but also both agree Trump and Biden “present” differently:

HUNT: Former President Donald Trump — he’s only three years younger than President Biden. But it’s an issue for voters — President Biden’s age — and Donald Trump has gone right ahead mocking the current president over it.

(VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: OK. Here’s the thing, though. Trump, himself, not immune to making mistakes that could be attributed to his age.

(VIDEO CLIPS)

HUNT: This topic is the subject matter of a new article in The New York Times called “How Trump’s Verbal Slips Could Weaken His Attacks On Biden’s Age.” Let’s bring in the lead author of that piece, New York Times political correspondent Michael Bender. Mike, thank you so much for being up early, especially after Halloween night with little kids.

But I loved your story. And this obviously has been something that the Ron DeSantis campaign has also, in the kind of last minutes of the Republican primary, really started to focus in on.

What do you think the effect of that is going to be?

MICHAEL BENDER: Well, I think the effect here is going to be or could be pretty harmful for Trump.

One of the new things in our article is we looked at some polling questions that a lot of pollsters are asking now. Do you think Trump is too old to run for office? And then the second question: Do you think Biden is too old to run for office? Now, about two of every three voters say Biden is too old, and about half of America thinks Trump is too old.

What we asked the pollsters to do was to look at the number of people who said both people — both candidates are too old. And that is a pretty stunning 40 percent of the country. And to dive just a little bit deeper with me here, in that 40 percent, Biden is winning about 60 percent of those voters.

Now, I will say Democrats are much more likely to acknowledge their candidate’s age than Republicans are willing to acknowledge an issue with their candidate. But that wide gap — what that shows is that if more people start to think Trump is too old, which these kind of gaffes and verbal slips could do, Trump could really pay a price in a head-to-head matchup with Biden.

HUNT: What’s your sense, Mike, of — I mean, we have seen voters be willing to forgive Donald Trump —

BENDER: Um-hum.

HUNT: — for political sins that no other politician would be forgiven for. And I guess my question is how do you think it applies around this question? Because there is kind of a difference in the way Joe Biden and Donald Trump present that — maybe it’s not age exactly, but there is a level of energy that’s just different and voters do seem to be willing to say well, you know, Trump’s just being Trump.

BENDER: Yeah — no, absolutely. You’re right about that.

Trump’s kind of just like the brute force that he speaks with. The bright shades of orange he keeps his hair and skin definitely present younger than Biden.

And the — some of the flubs you showed earlier. I mean, mixing up cities you’re in as a politician who is campaigning regularly. They’ve never — voters have never punished candidates for that kind of thing, in particular, but taken as a whole, these kind of episodes are piling up — the things that you’ve showed and that we’ve talked about.

Watch above via CNN’s Early Start.