President Biden has provide you with a brand new protection towards claims that he’s too outdated to run for one more time period: A minimum of he is aware of who his spouse is — versus “the other guy.”
As he expands his efforts to reassure voters that he’s match for one more 4 years, Mr. Biden took a activate the discuss present circuit, utilizing an look on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” on NBC to poke his challenger, former President Donald J. Trump, on his personal struggles with reminiscence.
In a playful however pointed interview aired early Tuesday morning, Mr. Meyers sought to assist the president address the age issue, which polls present is a crucial downside within the minds of most voters. Mr. Meyers jokingly advised the president that he had obtained labeled data indicating that “you are currently 81 years old.”
Mr. Biden went together with the joke. “Who the hell told you that?” he requested. “That’s classified!”
He then went on to jab Mr. Trump, who’s 77, over a video during which he appears to name his spouse, Melania Trump, by one other title. “You got to take a look at the other guy,” Mr. Biden stated. “He’s about as old as I am, but he can’t remember his wife’s name.”
Turning extra critical, Mr. Biden added that the competition just isn’t about how outdated the candidates are. “It’s about how old your ideas are,” he stated. “Look, this is a guy who wants to take us back. He wants to take us back on Roe v. Wade. He wants to take us back on a whole range of issues that are — 50, 60 years, they’ve been solid American positions.”
The president has been on the defensive about his reminiscence in current weeks, notably since a particular counsel, in a report on Mr. Biden’s dealing with of labeled paperwork, defined that one motive he wouldn’t cost Mr. Biden is as a result of he would come throughout to a jury as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Throughout his interview with the particular counsel, the report stated, Mr. Biden couldn’t bear in mind key dates of his vice presidency or the yr his son Beau died. Mr. Biden’s defenders assailed the special counsel for mentioning that.
Mr. Trump has had loads of moments of confusion in current weeks as effectively. Amongst different issues, he has mixed up his Republican opponent Nikki Haley with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, claimed to have crushed Barack Obama in 2016 relatively than Hillary Clinton and warned that the nation is on the verge of World Struggle II.
The second Mr. Biden was referring to got here throughout a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland over the weekend when Mr. Trump was praising Mrs. Trump after which, because the viewers applauded, stated, “Oh, look at that, Mercedes — that’s pretty good.”
Mr. Meyers performed that clip earlier than Mr. Biden got here out on the present, mocking Mr. Trump for seeming to have forgotten Mrs. Trump’s title. However Mr. Trump was addressing Mercedes Schlapp, a former White Home adviser whose husband, Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, hosts the convention, in keeping with the previous president’s spokesman, Steven Cheung. “The clips were taken out of context by disingenuous people,” Mr. Cheung stated.
Nonetheless, Mr. Trump has prior to now misspelled Melania’s name on Twitter as “Melanie.” And through a deposition within the defamation case introduced by E. Jean Carroll, Mr. Trump mistakenly recognized an image of Ms. Carroll as Marla Maples, his second spouse. A jury discovered that Mr. Trump sexually abused Ms. Carroll within the Nineties, and a separate jury ordered him to pay $83.3 million for defaming her.
Mr. Biden joined Mr. Meyers to have fun the tenth anniversary of the late-night present, a decade after showing on this system’s debut episode in 2014 when he was vp. It was Mr. Biden’s fourth look on a late-night discuss present since turning into president. He was a visitor of Jimmy Fallon in 2021, of Jimmy Kimmel in 2022 and on “The Daily Show” in 2023.
The viewers was an necessary one for Mr. Biden, who relied on robust help amongst youthful voters to defeat Mr. Trump in 2020 and desires them once more regardless of surveys exhibiting disenchantment amongst that era. However he slipped when requested about his 2024 agenda. “The 2020 agenda is to finish the job,” he stated.
Mr. Meyers requested the president concerning the “Dark Brandon” meme that his youthful aides have promoted on-line, a laser-eyed model of the president meant to make him appear cool and hip. Requested if he enjoys the meme, Mr. Biden quipped, “No, I resent the hell out of it,” after which placed on Ray-Ban sun shades.
When Mr. Meyers famous that many on the political proper have embraced a weird conspiracy concept that he and Taylor Swift “are working in cahoots,” Mr. Biden playfully snapped: “Where are you getting this information? It’s classified. That’s classified information.”
“But,” he rapidly added, “I will tell you she did endorse me in 2020.”
