Former President Donald Trump said President Biden is not too old to be president but rather he is too “incompetent.”
“Age is interesting because some people are very sharp and some people do lose it, but you lose it at 40 and 50 also,” Mr. Trump said on SiriusXM’s “The Megyn Kelly Show,” which aired Thursday. “But no, he’s not too old at all. He’s grossly incompetent.”
The former president added that Mr. Biden wasn’t “the sharpest tack” going back 25 years.
Mr. Trump, 77, who is the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination isn’t too far behind Mr. Biden, 80.
Mr. Biden would be 82 when he began his second term if he won the election, and 86 when it would come to a close. Mr. Trump would start his term as a 78-year-old but would end in his 80s as well.
Recent polls show voters are more concerned about Mr. Biden’s age than Mr. Trump’s. A Wall Street Journal poll found that 73% of voters said Mr. Biden is too old to run for reelection in 2024, while 47% thought the same about Mr. Trump.
Even though less than half of voters said he was too old, Mr. Trump didn’t like his age and ability being called into question.
“In a phony and probably rigged Wall Street Journal poll, coming out of nowhere to softened the mental incompetence blow that is so obvious with Crooked Joe Biden, they ask about my age and mentality,” Mr. Trump wrote recently on Truth Social. “Where did that come from?”
He told Ms. Kelly that Mr. Biden’s age doesn’t make him too old to be president because he has friends who are in their 80s and 90s who are still mentally sharp.
“No, not for the reason of ’old,’” Mr. Trump said. “Because I have many friends that are in their 80s, I have friends, Bernie Marcus, that are in their 90s and they’re sharp as a tack.”
“No, not old,” he added. “He’s incompetent.”
He said that some of the “great world leaders” were well into their 80s when they were “phenomenal.” He named Winston Churchill as one of those people.
“There’s great wisdom if you’re not in a position like him,” he said of Mr. Biden.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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