On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Biden 2024 Co-Chair Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) responded to a question on concerns about President Joe Biden’s age by stating that people should “watch how he conducts himself in negotiations with members of Congress about the critical pieces of legislation he signed into law.” And also stated that President Joe Biden won’t negotiate over raising the debt ceiling with Republicans.
Coons said, “[O]ur President is clear, we’re not going to default. We’re going to raise this debt ceiling. But we’re going to pay our bills and keep the good faith and credit of the United States secure. To negotiate, as a condition of avoiding default, making deep cuts in some incredibly valuable domestic programs like federal funding for state and local police or federal funding for Head Start or federal funding for Meals on Wheels, I think is unacceptable. And I don’t expect our President to negotiate at the threat of default, deep social spending cuts or deep domestic cuts.”
Host Andrea Mitchell then asked, “Let me move to the campaign and how do you combat the fact that he can’t change, which is that he’s getting older every day, God bless him? He is projecting that he’s got the enthusiasm. … And the point is that he’s the oldest President of the United States as he enters this. He’ll be 82 when he gets sworn in, if he wins, 86 when he finishes his second term. So, how does he counteract that and people’s concerns about it? Because, with at least half the people who are saying — 70% of Americans don’t want him to run for a second term and they say that age is a big factor.”
Coons answered, “Andrea, you know our President often says, don’t compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative. And you watched the State of the Union speech, I was in the chamber, our President showed incredible agility on the fly when heckled…by some of the MAGA House Republican members. President Biden engaged with them artfully. I would say owned them on the issue of whether or not there would be cuts in Social Security, whether or not there would be cuts in Medicare. He enjoyed the exchange. He was vigorous and agile and engaged. And that’s the President Biden who I know, publicly and privately. Just watch the address he’s about to give to the building trades leadership of our nation, just watch how he conducts himself in negotiations with members of Congress about the critical pieces of legislation he signed into law. I think, at the end of the day, the American people will come out and vote for Joe Biden for re-election because they know what he’s gotten done, because they know he has decades of experience on the world stage.”
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