Saturday Night Live aired a skit that poked fun at Democratic lawmakers over their recent attempts to quell concerns about President Joe Biden‘s age, which has become a growing concern for voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
The skit featured SNL actress Heidi Gardner playing CNN host Dana Bash, who was interviewing Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) about Biden, 81, and his mental capability to serve as commander-in-chief. Newsom, portrayed by SNL actor Michael Longfellow, argued that “behind closed doors,” the president is “incredible,” a nod to recent criticisms that the Biden administration ought to be showing the president acting mentally fit to the public rather than just stating he is.
“The software might be in beta, but the man, he’s an alpha,” Newsom said when describing Biden’s mental fitness.
The skit also featured other members of the Biden administration, including White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, both portrayed by SNL actors. Like Newsom, the two praised Biden for being mentally sharp “behind closed doors,” with Jean-Pierre portrayed as describing Biden as “the most vigorous man I’ve ever known” and Mayorkas depicted as calling Biden “a dynamo.”
To further prove his point of Biden’s mental fitness, Newsom is pictured calling the president himself, who answers the call but accidentally hangs up when trying to turn up the call’s volume. Like the other celebrities in the skit, Biden was portrayed by an SNL actor.
The recent skit from SNL aired the evening before Mayorkas appeared on State of the Union, where he offered a defense for Biden’s age, calling the president “remarkably detail-oriented, probing, and operationally focused.” Last week, Newsom dismissed concerns about Biden’s age, calling it “wisdom” that comes with it a “gift.”
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The president himself also recently brushed off concerns related to his age, arguing that voters should “take a look at the other guy” and how he is “almost as old as I am.” The comment was referring to former President Donald Trump, 77, who could be Biden’s opponent in the 2024 presidential election if Trump secures the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.
Biden, the oldest U.S. president ever elected in 2020 at the age of 77, is facing growing concerns from voters about his age, with 54% of respondents in a poll last month saying they had either major or moderate concerns about how old he is. Trump, meanwhile, faired only slightly better among the respondents, with 48% saying they either had major or moderate concerns about his age.
