President Biden’s principal deputy campaign manager, when pressed about the commander in chief’s mental sharpness, argued the 2024 election ‘is not going to be about age.’
‘When it comes to the president’s age, we have a simple formula for that, and that’s results,’ Quentin Fulks told ABC’s ‘This Week’ host Martha Raddatz. ‘And you know, age equals wisdom, equals results and experience. And President Biden, because of his age, has come to the table and brought people together from both sides of the aisle to deliver results for the American people, whether it be a historic bipartisan infrastructure bill, whether it has been bringing people to the table for job creation, making sure that inflation is down – the president has been delivering results, and our best answer to this is to continue to communicate about the things that people care about, Americans care about.’
‘This election is not going to be about age,’ Fulks added. ‘This election is about freedom and democracy, and the fact that Democrats under President Biden’s leadership believe that people deserve more freedom, not less. And Republicans want to roll that back and rip it away.’
According to a new ABC News/Ipso poll conducted Jan. 4-8, 69% of respondents do not think Biden has the mental sharpness to be president – up from just 43% in May 2020.
Fulks’ remarks come after former President Trump during a New Hampshire campaign rally on Friday used Nikki Haley’s name when describing allegations about Nancy Pelosi on Jan. 6. The apparent mix-up called attention to how Trump has long alleged Pelosi, as House speaker at the time, turned down 10,000 National Guard troops the day before the Capitol riot.
Haley branded the mix-up as a gaffe, calling into question Trump’s mental fitness ahead of the New Hampshire primaries, but some conservative voices on X championed how the on-stage remark prompted national news headlines on how Pelosi was allegedly in charge of security while Congress was certifying the 2020 election results.
Trump, who will turn 78 in June, is just about four years younger than Biden, who will turn 82 in November.
‘I don’t mind being 80, but I’m 77. That’s a big difference,’ Trump said at a campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, Saturday.
‘It’s not age. Different people, different strokes,’ Trump added. ‘I feel my mind is stronger now than it was 25 years ago. Is that possible? I really do. Now, Biden can’t say that. Look, you know he can’t say that. You know, he can’t say that, you know, there’s something going on.’
Trump said Biden’s public comments last for a very short period of time, recalling how he mocked Biden last week that ‘he can never find the stairs’ when leaving speaking engagements.
Some Democrats have also called Biden’s mental sharpness into question.
Last week, Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., gained the endorsement of former 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang on Thursday, who, while addressing voters in New Hampshire, said it will be hard for Biden at his age to ‘reinvent grandpa’ and added it was time to upgrade from the predicted Biden vs. Trump rematch that ‘no one wants.’
Phillips, who is considered to be a moderate Minnesotan, is a long shot to lead the Democratic presidential ticket, but he and Yang were campaigning in the Granite State ahead of the primary on Jan. 23.
Fox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
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