‘I’m old’: Biden defends his mental fitness during interview on campaign future and Trump shooting

President Joe Biden fired back at questions about his mental fitness and accused news outlets of failing to treat Donald Trump’s false statements with the same level of scrutiny during an interview with NBC News on Monday.

In an interview from the White House with anchor Lester Holt, the president insisted that he is control of his faculties and committed to staying in the race against his Republican rival despite calls from voters and Democratic party officials to step aside in the aftermath of his disastrous debate performance between the candidates.

Biden admitted he’s “old” and that concerns about someone his age in the White House are “legitimate.”

“But I’m only three years older than Trump, number one, and number two, my mental acuity has been pretty damn good,” he said. “I’ve gotten more done than any president has in a long time in three-and-a-half years. I’m willing to be judged on that.”

He added: “I understand why people say, ‘God, he’s 81 years old. Whoa. What’s he gonna be when he’s 83 years old, 84 years?’ It’s a legitimate question to ask.”

The interview follows an assassination attempt against Trump, who was nearly killed after a 20-year-old gunman fired into a campaign rally, sending a bullet towards Trump’s head that grazed his right ear.

Biden said he had a “very cordial” conversation by phone with Trump, and told him that the president and First Lady Jill Biden are praying for his recovery.

But Biden refused to draw an equivalency between his critical remarks of Trump’s agenda and the violent rhetoric that Trump has promoted throughout his campaign.

“How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when the president says things like he says? Do you just not say anything?” Biden said.

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