President Joe Biden celebrates his 80th birthday
For the first time in US history, there’s an octogenarian in the Oval Office.
President Joe Biden turned 80-years-old Sunday, a milestone that comes as the aging commander and chief weighs the prospect of running for reelection amid a strong showing by Democrats in the midterm elections.
If Biden successfully ran for a second term, he would be 86 years old when it expired.
The gaffe-prone president has sought to ward off concerns about age-related declining mental and physical stamina, but has acknowledged that his advanced age is a “legitimate” concern to voters.
“And I think the best way to make the judgment is to watch me. Am I slowing up? Do I have the same pace?” he asked voters in an MSNBC interview last month.
An Octoberpoll found that 64% of Americans were “concerned” about Biden’s mental health, up from 59% in August. The issue reverberated across both sides of the aisle, with more than half of Democrats surveyed expressing concern about his age.
Biden was set to celebrate his big day with a White House family brunch hosted by his wife Jill Biden, 71, according to Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
The shindig comes a day after his 28-year-old granddaughter, Naomi Biden, wed fellow attorney Peter Neal, 25, at a White House ceremony.
At the time of Biden’s 1942 birth, allied forces had ended the Axis powers’ Siege of Malta during World War II, and Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” was at the top of the charts.
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