HYGO News KJP Claims Biden Has 'Wisdom,' 'Experience,' 'Taken Historic Action,' 'Delivered'
KJP Claims Biden Has “Wisdom,” “Experience,” “Taken Historic Action,” “Delivered”
On September 5, 2023, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy confronted White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre with a devastating poll finding: two-thirds of Democrats — Biden’s own party — believed the president was too old to run for reelection. Rather than address the concern directly, Jean-Pierre responded with a string of superlatives that sounded like they had been assembled from a motivational poster: Biden had “wisdom,” “experience,” had “taken historic action,” and had “delivered.” The answer did not address the age question at all and instead pivoted to legislative accomplishments, suggesting the White House had no effective response to the most persistent vulnerability of Biden’s reelection campaign.
The Exchange
Doocy’s question was straightforward: “Why do you think it is that, in a Wall Street Journal poll, two-thirds of Democrats think President Biden is too old to run again?”
The question was notable for its specificity. This was not a Republican poll or a conservative media outlet’s survey. The Wall Street Journal, while editorially conservative, maintains rigorous polling standards. And the finding was not about general election voters or Republicans — it was about Democrats. Two out of every three members of Biden’s own party believed he was too old. For any political operation, this represented an existential problem.
Jean-Pierre’s response avoided engaging with the poll entirely: “Look, here’s what I know. Here’s what I can speak to. I can speak to that — a president who has wisdom. I can speak to a president who has experience. I can speak to a president who has done historic — has taken historic action and has delivered in historic pieces of legislation… whether it’s the Infl— Inflation Reduction Act.”
She then pivoted to attacking Republicans: “There are some Republicans — right? — in the House, in the Senate that did not vote for any of these legislations that I just laid out, who go back to their state, go back to their district and take credit for something that the President did. So, this is not unusual. They did this in 2019. They did this in 2020. And the Pres— they did this in 2022. And the President continues to prevail.”
What the Poll Actually Showed
The Wall Street Journal poll that Doocy referenced was part of a consistent trend in public opinion data throughout 2023. Multiple polls from various organizations showed that concerns about Biden’s age were not limited to Republican voters or conservative media consumers. They were widespread among the general electorate and, crucially, within the Democratic base itself.
The Wall Street Journal survey found that 73 percent of all voters believed Biden was too old to run for a second term. Among Democrats specifically, the figure was approximately two-thirds. These numbers were not driven by abstract concerns about age as a number — Biden was 80 years old at the time — but by observable evidence that voters perceived in Biden’s public appearances, including verbal stumbles, physical unsteadiness, and moments of apparent confusion.
Other polls from the same period reinforced the findings. An AP-NORC poll found that 77 percent of Americans, including 69 percent of Democrats, believed Biden was too old to be effective for four more years. An ABC News/Washington Post poll found Biden trailing Trump in a hypothetical rematch, with age cited as a primary concern. The consistency of the data across polling organizations and methodologies indicated that the age concern was deeply rooted and resistant to the kind of messaging Jean-Pierre was offering.
The “Wisdom” Defense
Jean-Pierre’s choice to describe Biden’s age as “wisdom” was a deliberate reframing that the White House had been testing in various forms throughout 2023. The strategy was to take the age issue — which voters perceived as a liability — and recast it as an asset. Old was not old; it was experienced. Diminished capacity was not a concern; it was seasoned judgment.
The problem with this framing was that it was transparently at odds with what voters were seeing with their own eyes. By September 2023, Biden had accumulated a lengthy catalog of public moments that fueled age concerns. He had repeatedly tripped and fallen, including a highly publicized stumble at the Air Force Academy graduation in June 2023. He frequently lost his place while reading teleprompter remarks, resulting in fragmented sentences and mid-word corrections — visible even in Jean-Pierre’s own answer, where she stumbled over “Infl— Inflation Reduction Act.”
Biden had mistakenly told an audience he had been to Iraq to visit troops when the trip had been to a different country. He had introduced himself at events by saying “my name is Joe Biden” as though his audience did not know who the president was. He had wandered away from podiums at awkward moments, requiring staff to redirect him. He had confused the names of foreign leaders and mixed up policy details.
None of this was unusual for an 80-year-old person. It was, however, concerning for a president seeking four more years in the most demanding job in the world. Jean-Pierre’s insistence on “wisdom” as the appropriate characterization did not address the underlying concern; it merely demonstrated that the White House had no better answer.
The Legislative Pivot
Jean-Pierre’s pivot from the age question to the Inflation Reduction Act and other legislative accomplishments was her default maneuver when confronted with uncomfortable topics. The strategy assumed that voters who were worried about Biden’s age would be reassured by a recitation of bills he had signed. This assumption misunderstood the nature of the concern.
Voters who worried about Biden’s age were not questioning whether he had been productive during his first term. They were questioning whether he could function effectively for another four years, through January 2029, when he would be 86 years old. Listing past accomplishments did not address future capacity. If anything, the pivot reinforced the concern by suggesting that the White House had no response to the forward-looking question.
Jean-Pierre’s specific mention of the Inflation Reduction Act was also strategically questionable in this context. While the legislation was a genuine legislative achievement, polls consistently showed that voters did not credit the administration with reducing inflation, which remained elevated throughout 2023. Naming a bill the “Inflation Reduction Act” when inflation had not been reduced to pre-pandemic levels invited skepticism rather than admiration.
The “Prevail” Claim
Jean-Pierre concluded her answer with the assertion that “the President continues to prevail.” This was a reference to Biden’s electoral track record: he had won the 2020 presidential election and his party had outperformed expectations in the 2022 midterms. The implication was that polls showing voter concern about Biden’s age would prove as irrelevant as earlier doubts about his political viability.
The argument had a certain logic — Biden had been underestimated before — but it also carried risk. The 2022 midterm results were attributable to multiple factors, including the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision on abortion, which energized Democratic turnout, and the nomination of weak Republican candidates in several key races. Assuming that Biden could personally “prevail” against age concerns in 2024 required a belief that the electorate would simply overlook what an overwhelming majority of voters, including most Democrats, were telling pollsters.
The Broader Briefing
The age exchange was one of several contentious moments between Doocy and Jean-Pierre at the September 5, 2023, briefing. In the same session, Doocy asked why White House staff treated Biden “like a baby,” referencing reports that aides had repeatedly walked back Biden’s off-script remarks, including what appeared to be a call for regime change in Russia. He also pressed Jean-Pierre on Biden’s failure to visit East Palestine, Ohio, seven months after the train derailment.
Jean-Pierre’s handling of all three topics followed the same pattern: deflect the specific question, recite a talking point, and move on without engaging with the substance of the reporter’s inquiry. On the “baby” question, she called it “ridiculous.” On East Palestine, she repeated “The president will go to East Palestine” three times. On the age question, she offered “wisdom.”
Key Takeaways
- On September 5, 2023, Peter Doocy asked KJP about a Wall Street Journal poll showing two-thirds of Democrats thought Biden was too old to run again. She responded by citing Biden’s “wisdom,” “experience,” and “historic” legislative accomplishments.
- Jean-Pierre did not address the age concern directly and instead pivoted to attacking Republicans for taking credit for Biden’s legislation — a non sequitur that did not answer the question.
- Multiple polls from the same period consistently showed 69 to 77 percent of voters, including a majority of Democrats, believed Biden was too old for a second term.
- The “wisdom” reframing was the White House’s primary strategy for neutralizing the age issue, but it failed to address the forward-looking concern about Biden’s capacity through January 2029.
- The exchange was part of a September 5 briefing that also included contentious questions about Biden being treated “like a baby” by staff and his seven-month failure to visit East Palestine, Ohio.