President Joe Biden is enjoying his 82nd birthday today at home after an especially low-key trip to South America.
With exactly two months left in his term, Biden has no public events scheduled to celebrate his birthday, and he frustrated the traveling press by refusing to take their questions for the entirety of his Latin American jaunt.
Tensions blew over a bit when Biden was preparing to return home, as a reporter repeatedly asked him to engage “as a gift to the press.”
He did not.
Mark Knoller, a former CBS News White House correspondent, chimed in, saying Biden “should have had a postelection news conference, a routine practice.”
Biden’s trip included stops in Peru and Brazil, where he became the first president to step foot in the Amazon rainforest. He also missed a photo with G20 leaders because he was late, though it was later retaken with the outgoing president standing front and center.
Another “family picture” group photo of #G20 #G20Brazil #g20summit2024 G20 Summit leaders in Rio de Janeiro Brazil … this time, Pres. Biden is there … pic.twitter.com/1UIbMzeBEL
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) November 19, 2024
Whether in the public eye or not, Biden has become the first president to turn 82 while still in office.
He has long been the nation’s oldest president. Biden was older on the first day of his presidency than the second-oldest, Ronald Reagan, was on his last day in office.
But President-elect Donald Trump will soon break that record. Biden was 78 years and 61 days old when he entered the White House in 2021, and Trump will be 78 years and 179 days old when he takes back over on Jan. 20, 2025.
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Biden’s advanced age was a key issue in the 2024 campaign even though Trump is only about 3 1/2 years younger. Biden performed so badly in the first debate that he was ousted from his own reelection bid in July to be replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris, who recently turned 60.
If he had won another term and stayed in office, Biden would have remained president until the age of 86.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
