MSNBC worries over poll on Biden's age: 'It is a reality'
A panel on 'Morning Joe' discussed a new poll which found a majority of Democrats and over 3/4 of Americans believed Biden was too old to serve a second term.
Liberal journalists at MSNBC grappled with the public's growing concerns over President Biden's age, Tuesday, after a new poll found an overwhelming majority of Democrats think Biden is too old to serve a second term.
The panel on "Morning Joe" discussed the recent Associated Press-NORC poll which said that 69% of Democrats believe Biden is too old to carry out a second term. 77% of Americans overall feel this way. Age is a bigger reelection problem for 80-year-old Biden than 77-year-old GOP front-runner Donald Trump for voters, with just 51% of Americans saying the former president is too old to hold office.
While those numbers may be uncomfortable for the White House, it's something they need to face, co-host Willie Geist urged.
"This is something the White House, the Biden campaign, cannot avoid. It is a reality. It might be uncomfortable for some people to talk about. When you have private dinner parties, when you go out at the ice cream place in the summer, people, even Democrats who like Joe Biden and plan to support him, they do have concerns about his age," he said.
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New polling shows an overwhelming majority of Americans and even a majority of Democrats are concerned President Biden is too old to serve a second term. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Analyst and Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson agreed it was something the White House had to address, but dismissed the impact it would have on Democratic voters come election time.
"It’s just a fact they have to deal with. I mean, the fact, also, is that those Democrats, I think, are highly unlikely to say, ‘okay, he is too old, I’ll vote for Donald Trump,’ right? They're not going to do that," he scoffed.
Robinson also said that he found these concerns "ironic" considering the three-year age difference between the two candidates and argued Biden was "visibly" more physically fit than Trump.
Fellow analyst John Lemire said senior Democrats have privately acknowledged that Biden's age is a "real issue" and "legitimate concern" for voters, but still felt that in a rematch against Trump, other matters will give Biden the advantage.
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Polling shows more Americans are concerned by the age of 80-year-old Biden than that of 77-year-old former President Donald Trump, the current GOP front-runner. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
But Democrats have dismissed concerns about Biden's age publicly, and The White House has repeatedly batted down questions about Biden's age since he took office in January 2021.
After Biden announced his reelection campaign in April, Democrats on Capitol Hill told Fox News Digital they were not worried about his age, and pointed to the president's "experience" "wisdom" and "energy."
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., also sidestepped concerns about the president's age this week.
Jean-Pierre touted Biden's achievements when asked about the recent poll by Associated Press reporter Chris Megerian during Monday's briefing.
"What I would say and I've said this many times and many of my colleagues have said this, the president says this. If you watch him, if you've seen what he's done in the last two years, this is a president who has had a historic administration in just two years," Jean Pierre said.
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White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during a daily news briefing at the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on August 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)
On NBC’s "Meet the Press" Sunday, Sen. Sanders also dismissed concerns over President Biden’s age ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
The former 2020 presidential candidate made clear to host Chuck Todd that, while Biden's age is an issue, there are "broader" issues to consider when voting for a president.
"Look, when people look at a candidate whether it’s Joe Biden or Trump or Bernie Sanders, anybody else, they have to evaluate a whole lot of factors. I met with the president — I don’t know, five or six weeks ago. We had a great discussion. He seemed fine to me," Sanders said.
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Fox News' Ethan Barton and Jon Michael Raasch contributed to this report.
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