President Joe Biden took aim at Donald Trump and his fitness to run for office at an exclusive dinner this weekend.
Speaking at the Gridiron Club and Foundation Dinner at the Grand Hyatt in Washington D.C., Biden, 81, made a jibe about two presidential candidates: himself and Trump, 77, saying that one of them was too old and mentally unfit for the White House. "The other's me," Biden quipped to an audience of high-profile journalists, business leaders and politicians from across the U.S.
The Gridiron dinner takes place annually in Washington D.C., and both parties tend to trade jokes and make fun of one another.
The president doesn't usually attend every year, but at least once in their time in the White House. Trump attended in 2018 and Barack Obama in 2011, 2013 and 2015. This weekend was Biden's first appearance since he was elected to office in 2020.
Deflecting ongoing criticism about his capability to continue as president in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, Biden's remarks were the latest in a string of digs at Trump, who is expected to face off against the president in a repeat of 2020.
"Don't tell him, he thinks he's running against Barack Obama, that's what he said," Biden told the dinner.
Newsweek has contacted Trump via the contact form on his website for comment outside of normal working hours.
It is not the first time Biden has made jabs about his political opponent's mental suitability for the presidency. He recently remarked that Trump is "about as old as I am, but he can't remember his wife's name," in an apparent reference to Trump mistakenly calling his wife, Melania Trump, "Mercedes" at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.
Trump was in fact referring to Mercedes Schlapp, his former White House director of strategic communications.
"Over the coming months, [Vice President] Kamala [Harris] and I are going to be making the case for how Americans are better off than four years ago," Biden continued in his speech, according to a transcript seen by Newsweek from the White House.
"How we got through the pandemic, turned around the economy, reestablished American leadership in the world—all without encouraging the American people to inject bleach."
Biden veered into more serious chat in his first appearance at the annual event. "We live in an unprecedented moment in democracy," he said. "An unprecedented moment for history. Democracy and freedom are literally under attack. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's on the march in Europe. My predecessor bows down to him and says to him, 'do whatever the hell you want.'"
He also reaffirmed his commitment to Ukraine, introducing the Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas to the stage. "We will not bow down. They will not bow down, and I will not bow down," he said.
At the event, Biden was joined by Harris. Other lawmakers attending included Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, among others.
Also in attendance was Taoiseach of Ireland Leo Varadkar, Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.
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Aliss Higham is a Newsweek reporter based in Glasgow, Scotland. Her focus is reporting on issues across the U.S., including ... Read more
