Joe Biden is 77 years old, and if he became president, he would be 82 upon finishing his first term.
Based on that fact, sources close to the former vice president are saying that Biden is quietly floating the idea of only serving one term if he wins.
Politico published this story on Wednesday, Ryan Lizza reports:
Biden signals to aides that he would serve only a single termFormer Vice President Joe Biden’s top advisers and prominent Democrats outside the Biden campaign have recently revived a long-running debate whether Biden should publicly pledge to serve only one term, with Biden himself signaling to aides that he would serve only a single term.While the option of making a public pledge remains available, Biden has for now settled on an alternative strategy: quietly indicating that he will almost certainly not run for a second term while declining to make a promise that he and his advisers fear could turn him into a lame duck and sap him of his political capital.According to four people who regularly talk to Biden, all of whom asked for anonymity to discuss internal campaign matters, it is virtually inconceivable that he will run for reelection in 2024, when he would be the first octogenarian president.“If Biden is elected,” a prominent adviser to the campaign said, “he’s going to be 82 years old in four years and he won’t be running for reelection.”
This report is incredibly damning for Biden. Not only does it accentuate his advanced age, it suggests he is not really up to the task of serving as president.
If the report is accurate, it would also put tremendous pressure on whomever Biden picked as a running mate. One of the sources who spoke to Politico tried to spin this as a positive. It doesn’t work:
The adviser argued that public acknowledgment of that reality could help Biden mollify younger voters, especially on the left, who are unexcited by his candidacy and fear that his nomination would serve as an eight-year roadblock to the next generation of Democrats.By signaling that he will serve just one term and choosing a running mate and Cabinet that is young and diverse, Biden could offer himself to the Democratic primary electorate as the candidate best suited to defeat Trump as well as the candidate who can usher into power the party’s fresh faces.
That’s like saying to young Democrats, “Come for the old establishment guy, stay for the young progressive.”
It’s a terrible sales pitch.
Biden was asked about this report by Peter Doocy of FOX News and denied the claims:
This is Biden’s deputy campaign manager:
Joe Biden already comes off as elderly and frail. Having this story out there does nothing to help his campaign.
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