“I would like to point out that it is now after ten o’clock at night, and Sleepy Joe is still awake. While Donald Trump has fallen asleep in court every morning for the past week.” It was one of the jokes on Saturday evening by comedian Colin Jost, at the traditional dinner at which the president and the White House correspondents poke fun at each other.
Jost, known from the legendary TV show Saturday Night Livehad another: “Can we just admit how refreshing it is to see a President of the United States at a meeting who doesn’t start with an usher saying, ‘Everyone stand up.’”
In his ten-minute speech, President Biden alternated between banter and seriousness. A few times he touched on a frequently recurring question: aren’t Trump, 77, and Biden, 81, too old to contest the presidency later this year?
For example, Biden said that his wife Jill was worried about how he would fare, giving such a speech to critical journalists. Biden said he responded that his wife should not worry. “It’s just like riding a bicycle.” Jill, in Biden’s speech: “That’s what I’m worried about.”
Biden lashed out at Trump a lot. “Age is the only thing we have in common. My vice president really supports my candidacy. […] Yes, age is an issue. I’m a grown man competing against a six-year-old.”
Trump later responded on social media: “Crooked Joe was an absolute disaster. It doesn’t get worse than this.”
Biden switched to a more serious note halfway through his speech. The most urgent question of our time, he said, is whether democracy is still a core value. “A defeated former president has made no secret of his attack on our democracy. He said he wants to be a dictator from day one […] and he promises a bloodbath if he loses again. We have to take this seriously.” After the attempt by Trump supporters to occupy the Capitol on January 6, 2021, we can no longer dismiss this as boasting, Biden said.
He ended with a toast “to a free press, to informed citizens” and appealed to the media: “Look beyond the race and the ‘gotchas’ and the side issues that sensationalize our politics. Focus on what is actually at stake.”
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