Jill Biden, the wife of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, defended her husband’s cognitive abilities on Wednesday from attacks by the Trump campaign that she called “ridiculous.”
“It’s ridiculous,” she said on NBC’s “Today” Tuesday. “Joe is on the phone every single minute of the day talking to governors, Nancy Pelosi, he’s on Zoom, he’s doing fundraisers, doing briefings. He doesn’t stop from 9 in the morning until 11 at night.”
The Trump campaign has repeatedly sought to make Biden’s mental acuity an issue and released an ad on Tuesday titled “What happened to Biden?”
The ad attacked the 77-year-old former vice president by showing video of him speaking eloquently during the Obama administration contrasted by footage of him stumbling on his words during the campaign.
Trump turned 74 in June and has also faced questions about his age and mental fitness.
During the primary campaign, Biden was also hit by at least one opponent, Julian Castro, over his memory. During a tense exchange at a September 2019 debate, Castro asked Biden if he’d forgotten what he said two minutes ago, drawing an audible reaction from the crowd.
A July Monmouth University poll indicated more Americans, 52 percent, believe Biden is mentally and physically up to the job of president, compared to 45 percent who said the same for Trump.
The same poll found 72 percent of Republicans said they are very confident about Trump’s stamina, compared to 47 percent of Democrats who said the same about Biden. Trump supporters are generally more enthusiastic in polls than Biden supporters.