Biden Is 'Absolutely' Open to Two Terms

Nominee addresses age issue in interview
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 23, 2020 11:30 AM CDT
Biden Is 'Absolutely' Open to Two Terms
Joe Biden addresses the Democratic National Convention on Thursday.   (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

President Trump has suggested Joe Biden has slipped mentally. Age is a fair issue, Joe Biden says in a new interview. "I think it's a legitimate question to ask anybody over 70 years old whether or not they're fit and whether they're ready," the Democratic presidential nominee says. Trump is 74, and Biden would be taking office at age 78. Biden's answer to doubters: "Watch me." Biden addressed the issue in an interview to be broadcast Sunday night, ABC reports. Interviewed with his running mate, Kamala Harris, Biden said, "Look at us both, what we say, what we do, what we control, what we know, what kind of shape we're in." Asked what it meant when he suggested he's a transition candidate, Biden said it didn't mean he would be a one-termer. He "absolutely" is open to serving two terms, he said.

The "transition" reference was about Democratic failures in "building the bench" in state offices, Biden said. The nominee said his goal is to "make sure when this is over, we have a new Senate, we won back statehouses, we’re in a position where we transition to a period of bringing people up to the visibility that they need to get to be able to lead nationally. And that's about raising people up." Harris laughed off Trump's insults in the interview, per the Guardian, as attempts to distract from "the harm" he's doing to the country. In an recent opinion piece on CNN, Lincoln Mitchell pointed out the dangers of coming into office as a lame duck. If Biden makes clear he's only in for one term, Mitchell writes, Harris becomes the frontrunner for 2024, and "Democratic unity will not last long." (More Joe Biden 2020 stories.)

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