“Take A Look At The Other Guy”: In Seth Meyers Interview, Joe Biden Addresses Voter Concerns About His Age — Update

Ted Johnson
·5 min read
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UPDATE: In his appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Joe Biden quipped about his age, but the host pressed him on it.

“All jokes aside, according to recent polling, this is a real concern for American voters,” Meyers noted.

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“Number one, you got to take a look at the other guy, he’s about as old as I, but he can’t remember his wife’s name,” Biden responded.

Biden was referring to Donald Trump’s reference to wife Melania as “Mercedes” in a recent speech.

“Number two, it’s about how old your ideas are,” Biden said. “Look, I mean, this is a guy who wants to take us back. He wants to take us back on Roe v. Wade. He wants to take us back on a whole range of issues. After 50, 60 years they have been solid American positions.”

He also vowed that the bipartisan border legislation, scuttled when Trump lobbied lawmakers against it, would eventually pass Congress.

Biden also slammed Trump’s recent comments that he would let Russia “do whatever the hell they want” to a NATO country that does not pay its security obligations.

“How in God’s name? The idea that the President of the United States is inviting Vladimir Putin to invade Eastern, Western countries?” Biden said. “It’s bizarre, absolutely bizarre, and it is totally against our interests.”

The president also slammed Trump for calling January 6th rioters “patriots,” although as he went on about his rival, he stopped and told Meyers, “I don’t want to get started.”

Biden said that there is “a path forward, with difficulty” in the Israel-Hamas war.

“Ramadan’s coming up, and there’s been an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in activities during Ramadan as well, in order to give us time to get all the hostages out,” Biden said. “That gives us time to move in directions that a lot of Arab countries are prepared to move in.” He noted that Saudi Arabia is ready to recognize Israel

“The bottom line is, I think the only way Israel ultimately survives, and I make no bones about it …They also have to take advantage of an opportunity to have peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians who are being used as pawns by Hamas. And so there is a process underway where I think if we get that temporary ceasefire, we’re going to be able to move in a direction where we can change the dynamic.

“I think that if we get that temporary ceasefire, we’re going to be able to move in a direction where we can change the dynamic, and not have a two-state solution immediately, but a process to get to a two-state solution,” he said.

He said that in the war, “there are too many innocent people being killed.” While Israel has slowed down attacks in Rafah, Biden said, he also warned that they risk losing support. “Israel has had the overwhelming support of the vast majority of nations. If it keeps this up [with] this incredibly conservative government they have … they are going to lose support from around the world, and that is not in Israel’s interest.”

Biden told reporters after taping the Late Night appearance that he hoped that a cease-fire can take effect by the end of this weekend.

PREVIOUSLY: “It’s good to be back. Why haven’t you invited me earlier?” President Joe Biden told Seth Meyers after walking onstage Monday as one of his guests as Late Night With Seth Meyers marked its 10th anniversary.

NBC released a clip from tonight’s Late Night hat explains the setup: Before the president came out onstage, Meyers had shown Amy Poehler a shot from the first show in 2014, when she and Biden also were guests. Meyers then said that he couldn’t get Biden for today’s show, only to have Poehler summon the president to the stage.

C-SPAN also had footage of Biden and Meyers later getting ice cream, with the president ordering mint chip. Biden said he hopes that there will be a ceasefire in Gaza by next Monday.

“My national security adviser tells me that we are close. We’re not done yet,” Biden said.

PREVIOUSLY: President Joe Biden is taping an interview Monday with Seth Meyers for Meyers’ NBC late-night show.

This will be Biden’s latest late-night appearance since taking office. As president, he previously appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, as well as on The Daily Show. He also did an interview with Stephen Colbert when he was president-elect.

Biden has been in New York for what was described as a campaign meeting, but few details were provided. Amy Poehler also is a guest on Meyers’ show, which is marking its 10th anniversary tonight.

As vice president, Biden was on the first episode. The president and Meyers also visited an ice cream parlor near 30 Rock.

Biden is continuing a tradition started by Barack Obama of appearing on late-night shows as a way of reaching audiences via a more relaxed and friendlier environment than a Sunday show or news conference. In 2009, Obama became the first sitting president to make an in-studio appearance on a late-night talk show when he visited The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Donald Trump skipped that tradition, as he was so often the butt of late-night comics’ jokes. But Trump did host Saturday Night Live in 2015, as he was in the midst of the presidential campaign.

The White House has long said it wanted the president to try to reach the public in non-traditional ways, something that is likely to accelerate as the general election kicks into high gear. Biden did, however, skip the tradition of sitting down with the Super Bowl host network for a pre-game interview, in this case CBS. But he did debut on TikTok later that day.

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