Bill Maher skewered Joe Biden and his advisors for not dealing with the reality that the president’s age is catching up with him, as he campaigns for a second term in office.
Biden’s age and mental acuity appears to be proving to be a problematic issue as the election looms with the majority of Americans, including Democrats, believing he’s too old to run again for the presidency.
The HBO Real Time host urged the 81-year-old Biden to ‘lean into’ his age and ‘let his old fart flag fly.’
‘If Democrats want to win the next presidential election, they need to find a way to make the Biden age issue work for them. Because you know what’s really getting old about Joe Biden? Complaining about his age,’ Maher started in his Friday night monologue.
Bill Maher, host of ‘Real Time,’ urged President Biden to embrace his age and suggested he should ‘let his old fart flag fly’
‘Instead of trying to refute all the “too old to be president” slams, Joe must embrace them. Stop with the “I’m sharper than ever.” Nobody’s buying that. Don’t try to deny the age thing, lean into it. Lean in, lean in like you’re eating soup,’ Maher jokes.
‘And just admit it! Say, “Yes, I’m bad with names and I walk like a toddler with full diaper, but I believe in democracy.”‘
Maher points out how Democratic candidates had become defensive in recent times over who they really are and noted that American voters could see through any insincerity.
‘Be yourself! And Joe, yourself is old,’ Maher said. ‘You’re so old you once fell down the stairs at the Underground Railroad. You’re so you’re so old, your bad kid with a drug problem is 54,’ Maher quipped.
He advised him to behave similar to how former GOP presidential candidate, the late John McCain, acted during his 2008 campaign.
‘I’m older than dirt, I have more scars than Frankenstein, but I’ve learned a few things along the way,’ McCain, then 71, said during a debate.
Maher then joked that Biden’s should appear at the State of the Union embracing his age – and using a walker
‘No one cares if you can ride a bike and trying to do stuff like that is only setting yourself up for failure,’ Maher said while referencing a photo of Biden falling off his bike from June 2022
‘No one cares if you can ride a bike and trying to do stuff like that is only setting yourself up for failure,’ Maher said while referencing a photo of Biden falling off his bike.
‘You recently joined TikTok to win over the kids, get off that s*** right now! It’s inauthentic, and it won’t work!’ he advised.
‘You’re not following the demographics. In 2020, a record number of eligible voters under 24 came out – as gay! But came out to vote? Not so much. Less than half. But almost 72 percent of people over 65 voted. Those are your people, Joe. That ‘Matlock’ crowd. Reach out to them… Take all your ads of Twitter and put them on CBS. Tell America I feel your joint pain.’
‘When the president delivers the State of the Union, I say he should old fart flag fly,’ Maher went on.
Maher then joked how at next week’s State of The Union Biden should finally embrace his age and appear using a walker.
This is not the first time Maher has urged Biden and his team to face up to the realities of Biden’s age.
Earlier this season, he called Biden ‘Ruth Bader Biden’ comparing him to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Ginsburg famously decided not to step down while President Obama was in the White House, allowing then-President Trump to appoint a Republican replacement following her death in 2020.
Biden’s age and mental acuity appears to be proving to be a problematic issue as the election looms with the majority of Americans, including Democrats, believing he’s too old to run again for the presidency
Biden’s long-established reputation for embarrassing gaffes and misstatements – in 2018 even he described himself as a ‘gaffe machine’ – has in one sense benefited him up until now, allowing his team to explain away mistakes as his Uncle Joe folksy, goofy charm.
But the dramatically increased frequency of his verbal stumbles is causing alarm. And it has been accompanied by evidence of physical frailty, too.
Since 2021 he has reportedly tripped eight times while navigating the steps of Air Force One, the presidential jet, including three times on a single flight to Atlanta.
In 2022 he fell off a bicycle after getting caught up in his pedals; in 2023 he stumbled descending a small set of steps at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan; later that year he tripped over a sand bag and fell on stage at an Air Force academy graduation ceremony.
And when the stairs to Air Force One were shortened last year so that he entered the plane at a lower level, Biden tripped on them, too.
When he was vice president, he tripped as he walked on stage to deliver a speech at the Paddington Town Hall in Sydney in July 2016.
In September 2022 he appeared to get lost while walking off stage following his remarks at the Global Fund Conference.
As applause ensued, the U.S. president began walking off the stage before abruptly stopping in his tracks and looking around with an appearance of confusion on his face.
He then seemed to ask people on the ground how to get off stage and did a few stuttering steps.
Sleepy Joe – as he was dubbed by Trump – is already easily the oldest person to become president in US history.
If he reclaims the White House, he would be 82 at the start of his second term in January 2025. (If Trump wins, he would be 78.)
Biden’s latest gaffes only serve to add fuel to those calling for him to be dumped as a new poll suggests Democrats would perform better in the upcoming presidential election without him.