White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a stern defense of President Biden’s “stamina” on Monday, his 81st birthday, when questioned over the growing concerns surrounding his age.
“I would put the president’s stamina, the president’s wisdom, ability to get this done on behalf of the American people against anyone, anyone on any day of the week,” Jean-Pierre told Fox News’ Mark Meredith during the White House press briefing in response to a question about former Obama adviser David Axelrod raising the issue of Biden’s age.
Earlier this month, Axelrod suggested it may be “wise” for Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race on the heels of a brutal poll that found him losing to former President Donald Trump by up to 10 points in five battleground states.
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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and President Joe Biden. (Getty Images)
Biden’s “biggest liability” with voters is his age, Axelrod said. While he should be “proud of his accomplishments,” the country had too much at stake to risk losing to Trump in the next election, he argued.
Axelrod doubled down on the criticism earlier in the day Monday, even after Biden reportedly called him “a prick.”
“I don’t care about them thinking I’m a prick — that’s fine,” Axelrod told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. “I hope they don’t think the polls are wrong, because they’re not.”
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David Axelrod speaks onstage at the Mainstage Talk: Ending the Stigma: From Silence to Solutions during Project Healthy Minds’ World Mental Health Day Festival 2023 at Hudson Yards on October 10, 2023 in New York City. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Project Healthy Minds)
However, Jean-Pierre told Fox during the briefing that there was “no alarm” going on behind the scenes at the White House despite those age worries.
“No, there’s no alarm happening behind the scenes. I can only speak behind the scenes here. There is no alarm happening behind the scenes. And I’m certainly not going to comment on everybody who has something to say,” she said.
“Also, it’s just not my job. It’s not my job to think through or to tell people what to think. Right? Whether it’s the American people out there or a, you know, political analyst, or as your question is about David Axelrod, it’s just not my place to speak to that,” she said.
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President Joe Biden delivers remarks during a joint press conference with Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak in the East Room of the White House on June 08, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Jean-Pierre went on to say that the White House’s perspective is that it wasn’t about Biden’s age, but rather his “experience.”
“That’s what we believe. And, as they say, the proof is in the pudding. The president has used his experience to pass more bipartisan legislation in recent time than any other president. That’s just a fact. That is something we have seen this president do, and that’s because of his experience … So what we say is we have to judge him by what he’s done, not by his numbers,” she added.
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Fox News’ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
