Biden defends age, offers weak­er defense of Netanyahu in rare print inter­view

Biden defends age, offers weaker defense of Netanyahu in rare print interview

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden bris­tled when asked if he could meet the chal­lenges of a sec­ond term dur­ing a rare print inter­view that attract­ed atten­tion for his notably weak­er defense of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Biden, the old­est man to serve as pres­i­dent, has faced scruti­ny over his age. He would be 86 at the end of his pres­i­den­cy if he beats pre­sump­tive Repub­li­can nom­i­nee for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump in Novem­ber.
“I can do it bet­ter than any­body you know,” Biden told Time in a pro­file pub­lished Tues­day. “You’re look­ing at me. I can take you, too.”
At the same time, inter­view­er Mas­si­mo Cal­abre­si wrote how Biden’s “stiff gait, muf­fled voice, and fit­ful syn­tax … cut a strik­ing con­trast with the intense, loqua­cious fig­ure who served as sen­a­tor and vice pres­i­dent” after their sit-down last week.
Dur­ing the over 90-minute appoint­ment and 35-minute inter­view, which …