Joe Biden, 77, shrugged off concerns about his age, telling donors that he is not as old as rival Bernie Sanders, 78, who had a heart attack this year.
“And so what I have found is that more and more young people are getting engaged in our campaign,” the former vice president said Thursday night during a “virtual fundraiser” from his campaign bus in Iowa, Waterloo. “And by the way, where people say, ‘Well, you know, Joe, you’re around a long time.’ Well, I’ve been around a long time, but I’ve not been around as long as Bernie has been around he gets a lot of support.”
Biden did admit that he’s failed to generate the kind of enthusiasm from voters under 30 that Sanders has, but insisted that ultimately they’ll settle for a candidate who stresses compromise.
“No, but look, you have to admit, Bernie has generated more support more young people than any other candidate. But the fact is it’s not about that, what it’s about is what they’re going to do to impact their lives,” he said. “And one of the things that we significantly underestimate is young people in this country are sick and tired of how dirty, is how, how venal politics has become. They’re looking for people to unite the country, to unite this country.”
During the call, Biden appeared to misrepresent his campaign’s fundraising numbers. At one point, he told supporters that his team raised more money in the 4th quarter of 2019 than “in any other quarter.”
Biden’s team later corrected their boss, saying they had merely raised more in the first two months of the fourth quarter “than in all of Q3,” according to a pool report.
Polling indicates that a lack of young support is one of Biden’s most glaring problems in securing the Democratic presidential nomination. A recent Iowa poll showed that just 2% of young likely caucus-goers in the state back his bid, compared to 30% of seniors.
According to a RealClearPolitics average of polls, Biden is currently placed fourth in the state, with 16.3% support.
Should Biden win the presidency next November, he would be the oldest occupant of the White House at 78.
Voters under the age of 30 have been flocking to candidates such as Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who are campaigning on radical change and a restructuring of the American economy.
The fracturing within the Democratic primary has caused many Democrats to express concern that their party’s nominee will be unable to reassemble the “Obama coalition” — a combination of working-class white, minority, and young voters who propelled the previous president to victories in 2008 and 2012.
Biden has repeatedly faced questions concerning his age and health at a number of campaign events. He has yet to release any health records since 2008 but has promised voters he would release new ones before any votes were cast in the upcoming primaries.
