Biden says he “seriously evaluated” his age when considering running for re-election

() — President Joe Biden said he “seriously considered” his own age when considering the possibility of running for re-election, in his first direct response to a question about his decision since he made the official announcement to run for a second term on Tuesday.

“(The American electorate) is going to watch a race, and they are going to judge whether or not I have what it takes. I respect that they look at (age) with a magnifying glass. I also took a hard look at it before deciding to run, and I feel good , I’m excited about the prospects,” Biden said when asked about his age during a joint news conference Wednesday with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at the White House.

At 80, Biden is the oldest president in US history, and if re-elected, he would be 86 by the end of his second term. It has been a looming political issue for the president, with polls consistently showing concern about his age, even among Democrats, before his re-election bid was announced.

“Regarding age, I can’t even say how old I am. I can’t even say the number, it doesn’t sound familiar to me,” he joked.

The 2024 campaign was the subject of one of the few questions Biden answered at the joint press conference with Yoon, who was at the White House on a state visit.

The scheduling of the state visit to the White House a day after Biden’s re-election announcement was coincidental, according to officials familiar with the planning. But the reenactments of American diplomacy, staged to bolster the US-South Korea alliance, turn out to serve Biden’s own purposes, reflecting a strategy of using the trappings of the presidency to lend its current incumbent a degree of capital. political.

It’s something Biden’s political team hopes to take advantage of when he seeks a second term, officials say, even in the coming months, before his campaign really gets going.

That includes using Air Force One to fly to site, construction and factory openings that have been made possible by some of the laws he has signed, many opposed by Republicans.

It will also include a busy overseas travel schedule, beginning next month in Japan and Australia and continuing through the summer with a trip to Europe, putting Biden on the world stage, and many time zones away from any crisis. politics in which Washington is mired. The advisers have drawn up preliminary plans for one foreign trip a month in the coming months.

Biden has told his advisers that he believes his main job is to be president, and he plans to focus primarily on his presidential duties, not his campaign, for the foreseeable future.

In reality, everything he does will be seen through a political lens now that he is a candidate, a fact that neither the president nor his team overlook.

No one is under any illusions that the perks of the position will erase the significant hurdles Biden faces, such as his age and approval rating. The same advantages did not secure former president and 2024 hopeful Donald Trump a second term. However, they hope that the authority inherent in the status of president could give Biden an advantage when Americans start paying attention to the election.

This Wednesday was a literal demonstration of the “rose garden strategy,” the approach that a sitting president has long used to use the power of the presidency to secure re-election.

Standing in the garden alongside his South Korean counterpart, Biden answered questions about nuclear threats and the economy, while reaffirming ties to Seoul. But he also warned against the “danger” that Trump “poses to our democracy,” trying to remind his audience of what he inherited by taking office while defending his own performance as president, pointing to the national debt and a “serious loss of credibility.” Worldwide”.

Biden told the news conference that he believes he would remain a candidate if Trump did not seek re-election.

“I think I would still be a candidate if (Trump) wasn’t. I know him well (…) Look, the only thing left… is to finish the job. We have an opportunity to put ourselves in a position where we are economically and politically secure for a long time… So, I think we have to finish the job and get it done,” he added.