![MSNBC's Mike Barnicle said Tuesday that a 45-year-old president could never match the stamina of 80-year-old President Joe Biden. [Screenshot MSNBC]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Screenshot-2023-11-14-at-2.33.11-PM-e1699990446626.png "MSNBC's Mike Barnicle said Tuesday that a 45-year-old president could never match the stamina of 80-year-old President Joe Biden. [Screenshot MSNBC]")
MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle said Tuesday that a 45-year-old commander-in-chief could never carry the burdens of 80-year-old President Joe Biden.
The “Morning Joe” panel was discussing the president, with host Joe Scarborough saying that Biden is doing a “full-time job” making sure the wars in Israel and Ukraine do not escalate further. Scarborough also mentioned Biden’s upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who he said might invade Taiwan while several high-level U.S. military positions remain vacant due to the Department of Defense’s insistence on paying for servicemembers’ abortion travel.
“Joe Biden is right now trying to stop three regional wars, which all can be connected from China to Russia to Iran to Hamas to Hezbollah, and suddenly, we are in the middle of World War III,” Scarborough said. “So right now, he may not be quite as focused about the trans panic in the Republican Party. He may be more focused in [sic] trying to stop World War III.” (RELATED: Peter Doocy Asks KJP Why 80-Year-Old Biden Is Treated ‘Like A Baby’)
“Very few of us and very few in the media really pay enough attention to the weight that this president carries each and every day,” Barnicle responded. “You mentioned most of it. Right now he is carrying two twin towers of tyranny. One in Donald Trump here domestically, the other, [Prime Minister] Bibi Netanyahu in Israel, who is perhaps the biggest obstacle to a two-state solution that exists today.”
“None of us can comprehend the weight of the presidency. Every hour of every day,” Barnicle continued. “You read every newspaper in the country … about President Biden, and within the first two paragraphs, they’ll point out he’s in his 80s. No kidding. He knows how old he is. You couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it. Someone 45 years of age couldn’t do what he does every day, but he does it.”
The United States has had two 45-year-old presidents. Theodore Roosevelt was 42 when he assumed the presidency after William McKinley’s assassination, and John F. Kennedy turned 43 about eight months before his inauguration. Bill Clinton and Ulysses S. Grant both took office at the age of 46.
Biden has defended his age, saying that with age comes “wisdom” and that he has been in politics “longer than anybody.” An early October poll found that 77 percent of Americans believe Biden is too old to run the country effectively.