‘You Think I Don’t Know How F*cking Old I Am?’ Biden Reportedly Fed-Up With Media Fixation on His Age

 
US President Joe Biden walks to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on November 3, 2022. - Biden is travelling to New Mexico to participate in events with New Mexico State Governor Michelle Lujan Grishamm, as well as other state and local officials, before making stops in San Diego, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Wilmington.

SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

Media focus on President Joe Biden’s age and its potential impact on whether or not he should seek reelection reportedly grates on the president — who just turned 80.

Politico’s Jonathan Martin took a deep dive on Tuesday into what he called the “eerily quiet” 2024 presidential race between former President Donald Trump and the yet-to-decide Biden. Despite it only being December of 2022, Martin’s column notes, “The 2024 presidential campaigns of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are riddled with uncertainties. That means other presidential hopefuls are lying low — for now.”

Martin, who serves as Politico’s Politics Bureau Chief and Senior Political Columnist, quotes Biden as having “vented to allies about how often his age is mentioned in the press”:

“You think I don’t know how fucking old I am?” he said to one earlier this year. But who knows what the fates have in store for someone who just turned 80 a few weeks ago (Sorry, Mr. President!).

Martin posits that while Trump’s campaign flounders under neo-Nazi diner scandals, ongoing legal trouble, and a non-stop obsession with the 2020 presidential election, Biden may lose his “raison d’etre” for reelection – stopping Trump and protecting democracy.

“What’s the current president’s rationale if, by the start of 2024, it’s clear the former president isn’t a viable contender?” Martin asks.

“And if Biden does run, will he pledge to serve a full second term?” he adds, drilling down on the concerns over Biden’s age. Martin then quoted a prominent Democrat on the topic, writing:

“I just hope and pray that when I am in my 80s I still have that kind of energy,” said Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), who witnessed Biden work a rope line when the president rallied for his reelection shortly before the midterms.

That was about all Levin would say on whether it’s in the best interest of the country to have an 85-year-old president.

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Alex Griffing is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Send tips via email: alexanderg@mediaite.com. Follow him on Twitter: @alexgriffing