Sitting down for an exceptionally excruciating long-form interview with Time Magazine, President Joe Biden joked about his age when asked about it, saying that he is more physically capable than anyone of doing the job and that he could even beat up those reporters who continue asking him about his advanced age. While Biden jokes about his age, many find it more problematic.
As background, though concerns about Biden’s age have been prominent since he announced his run, they increased in intensity following the report from Special Counsel Hur that indicated the elderly president’s age is something of a problem for him, particularly as regards his mental fitness for the job. At one point in that report, for instance, special counsel Hur said, “We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory . . . It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him—by then a former president well into his eighties of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
Another part of it provided, “In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse. He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (“if it was 2013 – when did I stop being Vice President?”), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (“in 2009, am I still Vice President?”), He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he “had a real difference” of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama. In a case where the government must prove that Mr. Biden knew he had possession of the classified Afghanistan documents after the vice presidency and chose to keep those documents, knowing he was violating the law, we expect that at trial, his attorneys would emphasize these limitations in his recall.”
In any case, during the excruciatingly awkward interview, President Biden was asked if he could still manage to do the energy-sapping job of being President of the United States “as an 85-year-old man,” particularly as he will be considered “too old to lead” by many in America if he somehow manages to win a second term in November.
Biden, responding, told Time’s Washington bureau chief Massimo Calabresi and editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs that he is able to do the job better than anyone else they know, a doubtful proposition, then suggested that he could beat them up. He said, “I can do it better than anybody you know. You’re looking at me, I can take you too.”
Continuing, he said that he has gotten an immense amount done, telling them, “Watch me. Look, name me a president that’s gotten as much done as I’ve gotten done in my first three and a half years. When all of you wrote in Time magazine I couldn’t get any of it done. When you told me there’s no pay, no way, no way he can get a trillion-plus dollar bill done in terms of, to deal with infrastructure, where there’s no way he gets $368 billion for dealing with the environment, where there’s no way I could get the legislation passed on.”
He then claimed that he had dramatically ratcheted up private-sector investment, saying, “I remember when I was heading to Taiwan, excuse me, to South Korea, to reclaim the chips industry that we had gotten $865 billion in private-sector investment, private-sector investments since I’ve been in. Name me a president who’s done that.”
Time magazine fact-checked that claim from President Biden, saying, the White House “announced an $866 billion private-sector investment in May, not when Biden went to South Korea in 2022. The funding was also meant for initiatives across clean energy and manufacturing industries, and is not limited to just the chips industry.”
Biden’s attempt at humor when asked about his age and the presidency this time was somewhat different when asked much the same question in Pennsylvania recently. Then, in late May of 2025, a reporter asked him, “President Biden, will you be serving your full four-year term or handing over power to Vice President Harris?”
Biden, snippily responding in quite a rude way, fired back, “You’re not hurt, are you?” The reporter, politely replying despite President Biden’s rude response, said, “I can’t hear you. Can you approach?” Biden, angrily responding with a fuming face and terse reply, snapped back by asking, “Did you fall on your head or something?”
Watch the incident here:
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