President Joe Biden celebrated his 81st birthday on Monday by joking repeatedly about his advanced age, even as the White House strongly defended his stamina and batted away polling — and one prominent Democrat — suggesting that the issue could cost him votes in next year’s election.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president’s age should not be a primary focus.
Being the national Thanksgiving turkey, he said, is “harder than getting a ticket to the Renaissance tour or Britney’s tour she on -– it’s kind of warm in Brazil right now,” appearing to confuse Spears with Swift, who is currently on the South America leg of her Eras tour.
He also offered multiple jokes about his age.
“I just want you to know it’s difficult turning 60 – difficult,” he told the turkey pardon audience, laughing. And as he noted the 76th anniversary of the event, he joked that he “wasn’t there” at the first edition. Later, a picture on Biden’s Instagram feed showed him posing with a birthday cake ablaze with candles. “Turns out on your 146th birthday, you run out of space for candles!” the president said in the post.
Biden said Steve Lykken, chairman of the National Turkey Federation, and Lykken's family sang "Happy Birthday" to him inside the White House before the event.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden will celebrate his birthday this week with his family in Nantucket, Mass. − where the Bidens historically travel for Thanksgiving − and enjoy some coconut cake, a Biden family favorite.
Biden's age is something that's top of mind for some voters heading into the 2024 election. A poll conducted in February showed that a majority of voters have concerns about his age as his reelection campaign ramps up, given that he would be 86 at the end of a potential second term.
Earlier this year, Biden's physician asserted that the "the president remains fit for duty" in a report published by the White House, and the president himself has laughed off speculation that he's slowing down.
Pointing to results including a 23-point swing to Biden in Nevada and an 18-point shift in Georgia, Rosenberg said: “Here is what happens in the battlegrounds – huge swings, GOP devastation.”
The Biden campaign and its surrogates are also confident. Earlier this month, the Democratic operative Donna Brazile told ABC: “I’m old enough to remember that Ronald Reagan was trailing in 1980 for his re-election. I’m old enough to remember when Bill Clinton was trailing, and Barack Obama was toast right before the 2012 re-election.
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