Biden says he's more physically viable than TIME reporters interviewing him: ‘I can take you too’
President Biden said "I can take you too" when asked by TIME journalists about his ability to be president given he would be 86 at the end of a second term.
President Biden said he was more physically able to do the job of the presidency than anyone, appearing to joke in a new interview that he could beat up reporters who asked about his advanced age.
Biden sat down with TIME magazine at the White House last month for a lengthy interview published on Tuesday. At one point, Biden was asked if he could still do the job "as an 85-year old man" who will be considered "too old to lead" by many Americans if he wins a second term.
"I can do it better than anybody you know. You’re looking at me, I can take you too," Biden told TIME, including Washington Bureau Chief Massimo Calabresi and Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs.
Biden, who was presumably joking, said he never considered not running again because of his age, and offered a message for Americans who are worried about it.
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"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," Biden said.
"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," he continued. "Name me a president who’s done that."
TIME fact-checked the comment, noting 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."
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Questions about Biden’s age and mental acuity have dogged his entire presidency, and there was a significant escalation over concerns about his re-election chances following the report earlier this year by Special Counsel Robert Hur about Biden's possession of classified documents.
The report revealed that the president couldn't remember key details during interviews about his biography, like when he was vice president and what year his son Beau died. The report also concluded Hur should not bring charges against Biden despite his "willful" possession of classified documents because a jury would view him as a "sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory."
Biden, who will turn 82 in November, is the oldest president in U.S. history. His presumptive general election opponent, former President Trump, will turn 78 later this month.
The White House didn't respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.