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Kellyanne Conway says Biden’s age won’t be an issue in 2024 campaign

Ms Conway’s former boss, Donald Trump, is only a few years younger than Mr Biden

Andrew Feinberg
Monday 13 February 2023 10:52 EST
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(Getty Images)

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A former senior aide to the second-oldest man to serve as president of the United States says the age of the oldest man to serve as president won’t be an issue in next year’s election.

Kellyanne Conway, who served as Counselor to the President under former president Donald Trump from 2017 to 2020, said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday that Mr Biden’s age isn’t something voters will have problems with in 2024, when Mr Trump — who announced his candidacy for president in November — hopes to challenge Mr Biden for a second term in the White House.

“I don't think Joe Biden's problem is his age or his tone, I think it's his policies," she said.

Ms Conway’s claim that Mr Biden’s status as the oldest-ever US chief executive will be a non-issue in a 2024 campaign may come as news to some of Mr Trump’s most fervent supporters, many of whom frequently suggest — without evidence — that the president is senile or not mentally up to the task of leading the American executive branch.

Brit Hume, the former Fox journalist who now appears on the network as a political commentator, claimed Mr Biden was losing his memory and “getting senile” during the 2020 election. And Mr Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, frequently accuses Mr Biden of suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

Instead, Ms Conway suggested voters will be turned off by what she described as Mr Biden failure to excite voters.

"He hasn't mollified the left-wing enough with all that spending, and he doesn't want to embrace moderates and independents,” she said, adding that the president “missed a tremendous opportunity to both unify and embrace a country” by not agreeing to sit for the traditional Super Bowl Sunday interview with a host from Fox News, which routinely devotes significant portions of its’ programming to leveling attacks on his administration and on the Democratic Party in general.

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