President Biden on Thursday took the opportunity to acknowledge his age — which comes up often as one of his weaknesses in office and on the campaign trail — when addressing the Irish parliament.
Biden expressed hope to Irish lawmakers about the future, while lauding the historic partnership between the two countries.
He also invoked his late son Beau, who he said should have been standing in his place.
“I’ve never been more optimistic about the future than I am today, and I’m at the end of my career, not the beginning,” Biden said as questions surrounding the timing of his reelection bid swirl.
“The only thing I bring to this career after my aged — as you can see how old I am — is a little bit of wisdom,” the president said in an address to the Irish parliament, the Houses of the Oireachtas.
“I come to the job with more experience than any president in American history, it doesn’t make me better or worse, but it gives me few excuses,” he added, alluding to his decades-long career in politics, which began in 1972 when he was first elected to the Senate.
His trip to Ireland overall has been very personal for the president, who often talks about his Irish heritage. On Wednesday, he visited County Louth, where his ancestors lived, and he is set to visit County Mayo, also where ancestors lived, on Friday.
When speaking of his son Beau, he told the gathering body that “he should be the one standing here giving this speech to you.”
He said he hadn’t planned on running for president in 2020 after Beau died of glioblastoma. Biden was joined on the trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland by his other son Hunter and his sister, Valerie Biden Owens.
Throughout his remarks, the president honored the history of the partnership between the U.S. and Ireland, expressing hope for future generations.
“Our history, yours and mine, reminds us the responsibilities we have to the present, to the hopes of our ancestors, to the expectation of future generations. Because you know what it means to fight for democracy,” Biden said.
He thanked Ireland for their support for Ukraine and for standing with the U.S. in opposing Russia’s invasion. The president said that Ireland is “not neutral between liberty and tyranny and it never will be, thank you for that.”
“Today we’re more united and more determined than ever to defend the values that make us strong,” he added.
The president mentioned that Benjamin Franklin had described Ireland as “disposed to be friends of America.” And he noted that in 1963, former President John F. Kennedy, who was the first Irish Catholic president while Biden is the second, spoke to parliament.
“When John Kennedy addressed parliament, he honored the more than 150,000 Irish immigrants who joined the Army of the north during America’s Civil War and among them, one or two of them were my relatives as well,” Biden said.
Before his remarks, Biden met with Irish President Michael Higgins and participated in a tree planting ceremony and ringing of the Peace Bell. He also met with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, and the two attended a youth Gaelic sports demonstration in Dublin.
The president spoke in Belfast on Wednesday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, expressing his strong support for the peace deal. He has been a long-time supporter for the agreement, which was struck on April 10, 1998, that ended the conflict, often called “the Troubles,” between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland.