The White House News

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday pushed back on concerns about President Biden’s age as he turned 81, arguing he should be judged by his experience.

“What we say is we have to judge him by what he’s done, not by his numbers,” Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing. 

“I would put the president’s stamina, the president’s wisdom, ability to get this done on behalf of the American people, against anyone,” she added. “Anyone, on any day of the week.”

Jean-Pierre pointed to Biden’s ability to pass more bipartisan legislation than other recent presidents during his first nearly three years in office, his visits to active war zones in Ukraine and Israel and his work to bring down inflation and raise wages.

“Our perspective is, it’s not about age, it’s about the president’s experience,” Jean-Pierre said. “That’s what we believe. And you know, as they say, the proof is in the pudding.”

Biden turned 81 Monday, a milestone he joked about during the annual turkey pardon earlier in the day.

“I just want you to know: It’s difficult turning 60,” Biden quipped.

But polls have shown voters are consistently concerned about Biden’s ability to serve another four years. He would be 86 at the end of a second term, and his Republican rivals have repeatedly questioned his competence and ability to do the job.

Former President Trump, the leading GOP contender a year out from the 2024 election, is 77 and would be 82 at the end of a potential second term.

Jean-Pierre’s comments came after she was asked about a new interview with former senior Obama adviser David Axelrod, in which he suggested Biden has a “50-50 shot” of winning reelection.

“He thinks he can cheat nature here, and it’s really risky,” Axelrod told The New York Times. “They’ve got a real problem if they’re counting on Trump to win it for them. I remember [Hillary Clinton] doing that, too.”

Jean-Pierre did not directly address Axelrod’s comments, saying it’s “not my job” to tell political analysts or others what to think.

President Biden will celebrate his 81^st birthday with his family on Nantucket, with a side of coconut cake, the White House says.

The president and first lady Jill Biden will travel to the Massachusetts island on Tuesday, the day after his birthday, and remain there through the Thanksgiving holiday.

Joe Biden spent his birthday on Monday at the White House pardoning the Thanksgiving turkeys.

“He’s going to do what they normally do, how they celebrate the president’s birthday, there’s a tradition,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

“They’ll be able to celebrate the president’s birthday as a family, together in Nantucket later this week and certainly will do that with coconut cake, which is something that they traditionally do,” she said.

During the turkey pardon, Biden quipped about his age and acknowledged that the longtime tradition fell on his birthday this year.

“I just want you to know it’s difficult turning 60, difficult,” he said.

The president also noted that it’s the 76^th anniversary of this decades-long tradition at the White House.

“I want you to know I wasn’t there the first one, I was too young to make it up,” he said.

The Bidens spending Thanksgiving on Nantucket is a family tradition. While there, Biden is slated to call members of the military to thank them for their service on Thursday.

Three out of five respondents believe President Biden knew of his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings, according to a survey conducted by Harvard’s Center for American Political Studies, Harris X and The Harris Poll.

Sixty percent of respondents think Biden “helped and participated in Hunter Biden’s business,” while 40 percent said they think the president did not help or participate, the poll found.

Republicans were more likely than Democrats to say they think Biden participated in his son’s business, despite there being no clear evidence of that claim; 81 percent of Republican respondents said they think Biden participated, compared to 39 percent of Democrats and 59 percent of independent voters who said the opposite.

Sixty-one percent of Democrats said Biden had no knowledge of his son’s business dealings, while 19 percent of Republicans thought the same, along with 41 percent of independents.

According to Harris Poll Chairman Mark Penn, the results show that voters are still concerned about Hunter Biden’s business deals and his father’s potential involvement.

“While the news has pivoted to other topics, voters remain concerned about Hunter Biden and how involved President Biden was in his business,” Penn said in an emailed statement.

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) opened a formal impeachment inquiry into the president in mid-September and claimed the Biden family has a “culture of corruption.”

That month, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee held its first hearings on the impeachment inquiry into Biden and had a focus on Hunter Biden’s bank records and business dealings.

Democrats say Republicans have yet to connect the president to any wrongdoing.

Still, the president and his son are earning low favorability scores with voters.

“Hunter received a high unfavorable rating – worse than the president – and most believe that the president at least knew about his dealings,” Penn’s statement said.

Hunter Biden earned the highest unfavorable rating, with 37 percent of voters saying they have a “very unfavorable” view of him, 1 percent more than said the same of President Biden.

Former President Trump earned the highest favorability rating in the November poll, with 30 percent of respondents saying they have a “very favorable” view of him and 34 percent who said they have a very unfavorable view.

The survey was conducted online Nov. 15-16 with 2,851 registered voters.

The Biden campaign Monday laid out the stakes of the 2024 election when it comes to gun violence, warning that a second term for former President Trump would “cost more American lives.”

In a memo shared first with The Hill titled “Trump’s America in 2025: More Guns, More Shootings, More Deaths,” the Biden campaign cited Trump’s past comments to argue the Republican front-runner would allow more firearms in schools and push for a national concealed carry law. 

“A Donald Trump presidency will mean more guns in schools and more guns in the hands of criminals, all because he thinks being pro-gun makes him look tough,” Biden campaign spokesperson Seth Schuster said in a statement. “But his refusal to stand up to the gun lobby to protect our kids makes him weak and a coward.” 

“We simply cannot allow his extreme agenda in the White House that will cost more American lives,” Schuster added.

The memo is part of a concerted effort by the Biden campaign to highlight the potential consequences of another Trump presidency. Past releases have covered abortion, immigration and threats to democracy.

President Biden has repeatedly pushed for congressional action on gun control and has taken executive action to try and address the problem, giving his campaign a clear contrast with what it views as a record of inaction from Trump.

Trump in 2018 accused Republicans of fearing the National Rifle Association (NRA) in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Parkland High School in Florida, and he suggested he would take action on the issue. But the White House’s eventual proposal that year did not address expanded background checks or raising the age for gun purchases, changes the NRA opposed.

Trump again in 2019 flirted with supporting stronger gun laws after mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, but no major legislation was passed by Congress.

In a speech at an annual NRA meeting earlier this year, Trump vowed to protect the Second Amendment and argued the rise in school shootings was a result of widespread mental health problems in the country. 

He said if elected, he would support putting more guns in schools to protect them from future shootings, proposing a new tax credit to reimburse any teacher for the cost of a concealed carry firearm and training from a qualified expert.

Trump also said he would ask Congress to pass a bill to create “national concealed carry reciprocity.”

“It’s simple: The safety of our children is on the ballot next November,” the Biden campaign said in Monday’s memo.

Biden has for years pushed for tougher gun laws, having championed an assault weapons ban while he was in the Senate and serving as the Obama administration’s point person to develop potential solutions after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. 

Since taking office, the president has signed executive actions to target the proliferation of ghost guns, which are difficult to track, and to bolster background checks. Biden in September established the Office of Gun Violence Prevention to focus specifically on the issue of mass shootings. He has repeatedly called on Congress to reimpose a ban on assault weapons.

Biden in 2022 signed bipartisan legislation that enhanced background checks for gun purchasers between the age of 18 and 21, made obtaining firearms through straw purchases or trafficking a federal offense and clarified the definition of a federally licensed firearm dealer, among other measures.

Despite that, mass shootings have been a persistent problem during Biden’s presidency.

Most recently, Biden traveled to Lewiston, Maine, earlier this month after a gunman killed 18 people in two separate locations there.

The president has the backing of major gun safety groups for his 2024 reelection, including Everytown for Gun Safety, Brady and Team ENOUGH, Community Justice Action Fund and Giffords.

“Joe Biden is, hands down, the only candidate in this race who has both the track record and the guts to stand up to the gun lobby and protect Americans from gun crime,” Peter Ambler, Giffords co-founder and executive director, said in a statement.