Biden said at the dinner: “yes, age is an (important) issue. I’m a grown man running against a six-year-old.” The 81-year-old politician later added about the 77-year-old former president Trump: “advanced age is the only thing we have in common.”
Trump wrote on the Truth Social social media site: “Joe with a twisted mind was an absolute disaster! It can’t get any worse!”.
Demonstrators holding banners outside the building of the event held at the Hilton Hotel in Washington chanted about the deaths of journalists in Gaza. Protesters urged journalists to boycott the annual event and shouted as government officials entered the hotel.
At the event, Biden said: “Frankly, I’m not asking you to take a stand. I’m asking you to rise to the seriousness of the moment.” Let’s get over the extraneous things of the campaign, the distractions that dominate and turn politics into sensationalism, focus on what’s really at stake, he told reporters.
The White House Correspondents’ Association was founded in 1914 and has held the dinner nearly every year since 1921 to celebrate reporters who cover the presidency and raise money for various scholarships.
Cover image credit: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images
