Sanders brushes apart considerations about Biden’s age: ‘Age is one factor. I believe expertise is one other’

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday brushed apart considerations about President Joe Biden’s age following the president’s reelection bid announcement, saying “Age is one factor. I believe expertise is one other.”

The impartial senator, who, at 81, is a yr older than Biden, advised CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” that “for those who consider in democracy – you wish to see extra folks vote, not fewer folks vote, I believe the selection is fairly clear. And that selection is Biden.”

Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats within the Senate, endorsed Biden’s reelection bid final week, and the president is more likely to get pleasure from a straightforward path to the 2024 Democratic nomination. Creator Marianne Williamson and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are difficult him within the major, however no main Democratic candidates are anticipated to affix them.

However at 80, Biden is the nation’s oldest president. Polls have persistently mirrored concern about his age, even amongst Democrats.

Though there are clear moments when Biden is visibly slower bodily than he was, dozens of aides, administration officers and members of Congress who’ve frolicked with him have relayed tales to CNN about how thorough and demanding he’s in assembly after assembly.

Sanders, who’s up for reelection 2024 however has but to element his plans, mentioned Sunday that the important thing for Democrats to carry the White House rests in a stronger concentrate on “working-class points.”

The social gathering, he mentioned, has “received to make it clear that we consider in a authorities that represents all, not simply the few. Tackle the greed of the insurance coverage corporations, the drug corporations, Wall Road, all the massive cash pursuits, and begin delivering for working-class folks.”

“You do this,” he mentioned, “I believe Biden goes to win in a landslide.”

Biden conceded earlier this month that he “took a tough look” at his personal age as he contemplated whether or not to hunt reelection.

“(The American citizens is) going to see a race, they usually’re going to evaluate whether or not or not I’ve it or don’t have it. I respect them taking a tough have a look at it. I take a tough have a look at it as properly – I took a tough have a look at it earlier than I made a decision to run, and I really feel good, I really feel excited in regards to the prospects,” Biden mentioned when pressed on his age throughout a joint information convention alongside South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on the White House.

“With regard to age, I can’t even say I suppose how outdated I’m. I can’t even say the quantity – it doesn’t register with me,” he joked.