In a rare public appearance since leaving office, former President Joe Biden lightheartedly addressed his age and proudly highlighted his achievements on illegal immigration during a speech on Friday.
“I’m getting on in years,” joked Biden, who is 83, to the audience in South Carolina, pausing briefly to cough. “Think of it as forty, twice, and then some.”
Biden consistently reassured the crowd that his age shouldn’t be a concern for voters as they approach the 2024 presidential elections.
He had previously exited the presidential race about a month following a challenging debate against Donald Trump, attributing his performance to a cold rather than his age. This decision came amid growing worries within the Democratic Party regarding his mental sharpness.
The Friday event marked the six-year anniversary of Biden’s pivotal win in the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary in 2020, which was a crucial turning point for his struggling campaign at the time.
During the event, the former president took the opportunity to emphasize his accomplishments while in office, even in areas where public opinion had been less favorable.
“Despite everything you read, despite the fact that COVID drove migration to record levels all around the world, the day I left office, border crossings into the United States were lower than the day that I entered that office” Biden said.
“That’s just a fact,” the former president argued.
An average of about 2.4 million migrants poured into the country every year of Biden’s only term in office — most crossing into the US illegally.
In the first three months of Biden’s stint in the White House, the surge in border crossings had already surpassed any record from the previous Trump administration.
The former president only moved to shut the border near the tail end of the 2024 campaign.
In his speech, Biden further claimed that on the day he left office he “handed Trump the strongest economy in the world … That’s not hyperbole. That’s a fact.”
The rosy picture Biden painted of his administration didn’t fly with many on social media.
“The sad part is he either actually believes it or is too senile to know it’s a lie,” Greg Price wrote on X.
“Delusions,” read a post from another user.
Conservative Kris Kinder blasted Biden as a “shameless liar.”
Similarly, radio host Tom Steele described the former president’s comments as “peak disingenuity.”
One X user bluntly wrote: “I’m sorry, but this is f—king insane.”
