Not so fast, says Stephen A. Smith.
Anyone who thinks last week’s State of the Union speech cancels all concerns about President Biden’s mental strength and acuity is “smoking crack,” the ESPN sports personality and commentator said.
Mr. Smith took political umbrage at the praise from Democrats that Mr. Biden was behaving energetically, rather than in the low-toned mumbles that have marred many of his recent public performances.
“What the h—- does that mean, that Joe Biden looked like he had energy last night?” Mr. Smith asked on Friday’s episode of his self-named radio show, according to a report in the Washington Examiner. “The question is, can you rely on him to do that for four years, starting next year?”
“He gives a speech for an hour and 10 minutes or so on a weeknight in March of 2024, and, suddenly, that warrants four more years for a dude that’s gonna turn 82 years of age in November and is expected to give four more years after that?”
Mr. Smith, who leans Democratic but also will go on Fox News and other conservative outlets, said that Mr. Biden’s age may turn out to be the killer issue in the 2024 general election because the public has seen “slippage” since Mr. Biden won in 2020.
“He didn’t look that way last night,” he said. “Give him credit for that, but it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in the grand scheme of things when you [are] talking about four more years.”
“If you think that an hour speech offsets all of that, you smoking crack,” he said.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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