US conservative commentator Charlie Sykes says the Biden campaign’s defence against age concerns doesn’t need to be all that complicated.
“Joe Biden can say: Yes, I’m old, but he is crazy,” Sykes said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Monday.
He went on: “They are crazy and they are dangerous and they are burning it down. Yes, I am an old guy. But this guy is deranged and fascist-adjacent. That’s the way you address the age issue.”
“Don’t make it too complex,” he added. “You know, ‘I’m old but you’re nuts.’”
It appears increasingly probable that the 80-year-old president will face off against his predecessor, the four-times-indicted Donald Trump, in the 2024 election.
Sykes’ Biden comments followed his criticism of the Republican Party in general, questioning whether it has any remaining legitimacy as a “serious governing party.”
Sykes, founder of the conservative website The Bulwark, has been deeply critical of Trump since 2016, when he refused to get behind the former president’s campaign.
Trump has been indicted on a total of 91 felony counts across two state and two federal cases. The allegations involve his attempted coup after the 2020 election, alleged mishandling of classified documents and a hush money payment to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
Authoritarianism experts have warned that a second Trump presidency would be devastating for American democracy.
Age has become a key issue in the lead-up to the next presidential election for voters on both sides of the aisle. Trump is 77.
Watch Sykes’ commentary on MSNBC below.