White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday brushed off a new book's assertion that 80-year-old President Joe Biden privately admits he's "tired."
The Daily Mail's Rob Crilly asked Jean-Pierre if the president's tiredness is causing the White House to call press lids early in the morning.
"I mean, that's a ridiculous assumption to make," Jean-Pierre said. "That's a ridiculous assumption to make."
In private, Biden has admitted that "he felt tired," according to Franklin Foer's new book The Last Politician, excerpts of which were published Tuesday in the Guardian. Foer, a liberal journalist and former editor at the New Republic, said it was "striking" that the president "took so few morning meetings or presided over so few public events before 10am."
Biden's "public persona reflected physical decline and time's dulling of mental faculties that no pill or exercise regime can resist," Foer wrote, citing a "tight inner circle" of the president's advisers. "His advanced years were a hindrance, depriving him of the energy to cast a robust public presence or the ability to easily conjure a name."
The Guardian report came one day after the Associated Press released a poll that found Americans overwhelmingly say Biden is too old for his job. Seventy-seven percent of voters, including 69 percent of Democrats, said Biden's age leaves him unable to "effectively serve" as president.
CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday attempted to push Jean-Pierre about the AP poll. The press secretary responded by touting the president's record, leading Tapper to criticize her for not answering the question.
Those reports mark the latest time that left-leaning media have wavered on Biden because of his age. The New York Times in June published a long article on how Biden has become "slower" and "more prone to occasional lapses of memory."
Among Democratic Party donors, Biden's age "was all anyone was talking about," one source told the Times.