President Donald Trump took another dig at former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday, claiming the Democratic primary frontrunner’s looks and mind are less sharp due to age.
At 72 and 76, respectively, Trump and Biden are among the oldest candidates seeking the White House in 2020. But the president’s comment came in the form of a tweet responding to “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough’s remark earlier Wednesday that Trump “looks like he’s about 20 years younger than a lot of Democratic candidates.
”“He can engage the audience,” Scarborough said of Trump on the MSNBC morning show. “He can engage viewers, despite the hateful rhetoric, despite everything else. You can see that guy is gearing up for 2020. And yes, Democrats, he’s going to be hard to beat.”
Trump commented on a tweet linking to a Washington Examiner article summing up Scarborough’s comments and
The president has already gleefully touted his age in the early stages of the 2020 primary, comparing himself to the two Democrats he reportedly views as his most likely challengers in the general election — Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is 77. Trump last month called himself “a young, vibrant man” while talking to reporters, claiming Biden and Sanders make him look youthful and energetic.
Trump has reportedly told his aides, however, that he views Biden as his biggest threat in 2020 — perhaps fueling extra insults lobbed at the former vice president.
In a speech in Louisiana on Tuesday the president alleged that Sanders “has a lot more energy than Biden.”“But it’s energy to get rid of your jobs,” Trump continued during a tangent bashing a slew of the 20-plus Democratic primary candidates. “He’s got the opposite energy that you produce. Not good energy, you don’t like his energy.”
All three white male septuagenarians, though, will likely fight for overlapping segments of voters, competing to win the blue-collar and Rust belt blocs that helped secure Trump’s victory in 2016. And Biden and Sanders face a young and diverse pool of primary contenders.
Scarborough on Wednesday played a clip of Trump’s diatribe from the prior day.
“Let's be blunt about Donald Trump,” he said. “That guy can do on a campaign stage what nobody else can do.”
The “Morning Joe” host has a complicated relationship with the president. Scarborough and his co-host and wife, Mika Brzezinski, were once friends of Trump but have been deeply critical of him since he entered the White House.
Scarborough is a former congressman and Republican, who announced he was leaving the GOP to become an independent in 2017, stating his personal values clashed with what the party stood for under Trump’s leadership.
The president has often launched attacks at “Morning Joe” from his Twitter account over the course of his campaign and presidency, repeatedly criticizing the show’s ratings and characterizing it as “fake news.”
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine