President Biden told a Boston fundraiser Tuesday that he likely would have retired after a single term of office if former President Donald Trump wasn’t running in next year’s election.
“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running,” the 81-year-old president acknowledged to a group of Democratic donors. “But we cannot let him win.”
The remark is a stunning self-assessment of the implications of Biden’s age.
Biden already is the oldest-ever president and would be 86 if he completes a full second term in January 2029.
Critics routinely highlight instances in which Biden appears confused or shares false memories.
Furthermore, several polls this year have found that about two out of three voters are concerned about about Biden’s mental acuity.
Trump, 77, is the heavy favorite for the Republican nomination and polls show him beating Biden due in large part to economic pessimism linked to high inflation and interest rates.
The RealClearPolitics average of recent national polls shows Trump with 46.7% support and Biden with 44.7%.
Swing-state polling released last month by the New York Times found Trump also is ahead in battlegrounds including Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Although Trump has an edge, he’s due to stand trial in four criminal cases during the coming months, which is expected to impact the campaign.
Trump’s first trial is scheduled to begin in March in Washington on federal charges of unlawfully trying to reverse his 2020 election defeat. Later that month, he’s due in Manhattan for trial on falsifying business records charges related to hush money payments during the 2016 campaign.
Trump’s federal trial for allegedly mishandling national security documents is schedule to begin in May and his trial in Georgia on state charges linked to challenging the election results there is tentatively set for August.
Biden also faces variables — such as the possibility that the House of Representatives will impeach him for alleged corruption linked to his son Hunter Biden and brother James Biden’s dealings in countries such as China and Ukraine.
A successful impeachment vote would put a rare blemish on Biden’s presidency and make him the fourth president in US history to get the admonishment, joining Trump, Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson.
Biden would almost certainly be acquitted by the Democrat-held Senate, but his trial in the upper chamber would feature a public airing of evidence that could harm his standing.
A poll released in October by The Associated Press found that a resounding 68% of the public already believes that Biden acted illegally or unethically with regard to his son’s businesses, including 40% of Democrats.
Hunter Biden, 53, also faces a potential trial on federal gun charges in Delaware and a Los Angeles grand jury is considering possible federal tax charges that could implicate his father, especially if the first son is indicted for alleged violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act as a result of introducing colleagues to his dad and other Obama-Biden administration figures.