Former President Jimmy Carter, 94, said that he wouldn’t have been able to assume the duties of the presidency when he was 80 years old, which is the same age 2020 front-runner Joe Biden would be halfway through his first term in office.
“If I were just 80 years old, if I was 15 years younger, I don’t believe I could undertake the duties that I experienced when I was president,” Carter stated when speaking in front of an audience at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
“For one thing, you have to be very flexible with your mind,” he explained. “You have to be able to go from one subject to another and concentrate on each one adequately and then put them all together in a comprehensive way, like I did between Begin and Sadat with the peace agreement.”
Ronald Reagan was the oldest person ever to occupy the White House. He was 73 years and 274 days old when he won his second term. By the time he left office, Reagan was 77 years and 349 days old. If elected in 2020, Biden would be 78 years and 51 days old. He would turn 80 on Nov. 20, 2022, more than two months before the halfway mark of his first four-year term.
On the campaign trail, Biden has repeatedly flubbed lines and confused locations, mixing up times and events. His fellow presidential candidate Cory Booker said after last week’s presidential debate there was a fear about whether or not he can “carry the ball all the way across the end line without fumbling.”
Biden is not the oldest candidate in the race. Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders would complete his first term in the Oval Office at the age of 83. President Trump was the oldest president ever elected. He was 70 years and 220 days old on his inauguration day.
