Is Joe Biden too old to be president? Former Gov. Jerry Brown has a surprising answer
LOS ANGELES - Is Joe Biden too old to be President, as some on the right have suggested?
"No," said former California Governor Jerry Brown. "I don't think I'm too old to be President. I'm 82."
Should Biden be elected, he would be 78-years-old on Inauguration day, becoming the oldest person to ever assume the office.
Currently, President Donald Trump holds that distinction. Trump was 70 years and 220 days old when he was inaugurated in 2017, just days older than Ronald Reagan, who was 69 years and 349 days old upon taking office in 1981.
Brown, speaking with FOX 11’s Elex Michaelson for The Issue Is, insisted that Biden’s increased age is an asset.
“Energy is good… being young, and not knowing everything, you’re bolder, you’ll take risks, you’ll innovate,” Brown cautioned. “But as you get older, you understand things, you’ve made your mistakes, so you’re wiser.”
The four-term Governor stressed that this moment in time requires the wisdom that can only be gained through experience.
“I think at this point, with all the dangers in the world, climate change, the virus, the growing competition with nuclear powers, China and Russia, I think we need wisdom, we need experience… Biden looks pretty good, he’s got at least four years in him, maybe more.”
On Biden, the man, Brown was effusive in his praise, calling the former Vice President a return to a more traditional way of governing, and someone who represents more centrist views.
“You see what you get, you get what you see,” Brown said. “He’s had a lot of experience, he’s not flamboyant, he’s not a show-horse, he’s a work-horse, he has all the decency that Americans want, he’s been close to working people, he’s had tragedy in his life, he worked with Obama as Vice President, he’s been in the Senate for decades… he knows how to get it done.”
Brown’s insights come after a career that has, in many ways, mirrored that of Biden.
Biden began his tenure in elected office as a member of Delaware’s New Castle County Council in November 1970, Brown was sworn in as California’s Secretary of State a mere two months later, in January 1971.
Both men have also run for President three times apiece, Brown in 1976, 1980, and 1992, Biden in 1988, 2008, and 2020.
Considering their shared biographies, Brown similarly emphasized that at 82-years-old, he doesn’t feel he’s too old to be President either, saying “I feel I’m at the peak of my understanding and experience.”
Given that, Michaelson asked Brown if he regrets not throwing his hat into the ring this year.
“Mild, mild,” Brown laughed. “Bernie was too strong, they had a bunch of good people running, I wasn’t ready to jump out and do that, I think it’s time to let some other people do it, and I don’t think I would have run anyway. If I thought I could have won, yeah, I might well have jumped in, but that was my mature sizing up of the situation.”
In a wide-ranging interview on The Issue Is, Brown also discussed California Senator Kamala Harris’ inclusion on the Democratic ticket, climate change, especially as it relates to the wildfires and rolling blackouts plaguing California, and the Golden State’s continued efforts to reopen in the face of coronavirus.
Brown said that given the spike in cases, the state clearly reopened too quickly, but that, ultimately, the trouble California and Governor Gavin Newsom find themselves in today, was brought on by the President.
“[The President needs] to have mobilized manufacturing so that we could have had millions of tests a day,” Brown said. “We had to do that so we could identify what was the subset, the group that was infected, and then quarantine them, because without those tests, you have to quarantine everybody, and that becomes intolerable and will lead to a depression.”
The Issue Is is California's only statewide political show. Watch FOX 11 Los Angeles Fridays at 10:30PM and Sundays at 9:00AM. For more showtimes and information, go to TheIssueIsShow.com.