CORRECTION, March 7, 2024: Hillary Clinton’s first name was misspelled in an earlier version of this article’s headline.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday acknowledged President Joe Biden is “old” but asked voters to give the 81-year-old another four years in the White House despite that.
Biden’s age and cognitive health have been the subject of scrutiny for years and the topic of a national conversation since last month, when he was not charged with mishandling classified documents because of his age, according to special counsel Robert Hur.
Still, Clinton said, the president is more qualified to run the country even at his advanced age than his likely Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, to whom she lost the 2016 election.
In an appearance on SiriusXM radio’s “Mornings with Zerlina” on Tuesday, she spoke about the age question and stumped for her fellow Democrat.
Host Zerlina Maxwell asked Clinton if she thought the issue had become a “proxy” argument for whether voters believed a woman should be president.
“I think it is for some people,” the former first lady responded.
She went on to say that American culture simply does not value age and prefers youth.
“I think it’s much more about the fact that Americans are kind of skittish about age,” the 76-year-old Clinton said. “You know, we really are a culture that worships young people — youth — and all of the artifacts of being young, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
“But I would put Joe Biden’s record up against anybody’s. Yeah, he got a lot done, and we’re the better for it.”
She then asked why voters would “throw out” a president in Biden who she claimed had worked to improve the country.
“It is still a real challenge for a lot of Americans… to think of a woman as being President.” – @HillaryClinton
Listen to the full conversation with @ZerlinaMaxwell on @SiriusXMProg: https://t.co/vD1aZYbT6x pic.twitter.com/nR8D3C24vA
— Mornings With Zerlina. (@ZerlinaMornings) March 5, 2024
“Somebody the other day said to me, Zerlina: ‘Well, but, you know, Joe Biden’s old,’” Clinton said.
She continued, “I said, ‘You know what, Joe Biden is old. Let’s go ahead and accept the reality. Joe Biden is old.’
“Pick between your two old ones and figure out how you’re going to save our democracy.”
If Biden did serve a full second term, he would be 86 at the end of it in January 2029.
Clinton said the 77-year-old Trump is also old but brings other concerns.
“So we have a contest between one candidate who’s old but who’s done an effective job and doesn’t threaten our democracy,” she said.
“And we have another candidate who is old, barely makes sense when he talks, is dangerous and threatens our democracy.”
Clinton challenged Trump’s mental acuity by claiming his confusing former President Barack Obama with Biden at recent campaign events should be cause for voters to question him.
The former president was speaking at a rally in Virginia last week when he touched on the ongoing war in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion under President Vladimir Putin, USA Today reported.
Is Biden too old to be president?
“Putin, you know, has so little respect for Obama that he’s starting to throw around the nuclear word,” Trump said in an obvious reference to Biden.
The newspaper noted he has referred to Obama a number of times while slamming the Biden administration.
In November, the GOP candidate rejected the idea that he was confused when he referred to Obama while ripping the White House.
“I sarcastically insert the name Obama for Biden as an indication that others may actually be having a very big influence in running our Country,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social account.
