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President Biden has come up with a new defense against claims that he is too old to run for another term: At least he knows who his wife is \u2014 as opposed to \u201cthe other guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he expands his efforts to reassure voters that he is fit for another four years, Mr. Biden took a turn on the talk show circuit, using an appearance on \u201cLate Night With Seth Meyers\u201d on NBC to poke his challenger, former President Donald J. Trump, on his own struggles with memory.<\/p>\n
In a playful but pointed interview aired early Tuesday morning, Mr. Meyers sought to help the president address the age issue<\/a>, which polls show is an important drawback in the minds of most voters. Mr. Meyers jokingly told the president that he had obtained classified information indicating that \u201cyou are currently 81 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Biden went along with the joke. \u201cWho the hell told you that?\u201d he asked. \u201cThat\u2019s classified!\u201d<\/p>\n He then went on to jab Mr. Trump, who is 77, over a video in which he seems to call his wife, Melania Trump, by another name. \u201cYou got to take a look at the other guy,\u201d Mr. Biden said. \u201cHe\u2019s about as old as I am, but he can\u2019t remember his wife\u2019s name.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Turning more serious, Mr. Biden added that the contest is not about how old the candidates are. \u201cIt\u2019s about how old your ideas are,\u201d he said. \u201cLook, this is a guy who wants to take us back. He wants to take us back on Roe v. Wade. He wants to take us back on a whole range of issues that are \u2014 50, 60 years, they\u2019ve been solid American positions.\u201d<\/p>\n The president has been on the defensive about his memory in recent weeks, particularly since a special counsel, in a report on Mr. Biden\u2019s handling of classified documents, explained that one reason he would not charge Mr. Biden is because he would come across to a jury as a \u201cwell-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.\u201d<\/a> During his interview with the special counsel, the report said, Mr. Biden could not remember key dates of his vice presidency or the year his son Beau died. Mr. Biden\u2019s defenders assailed the special counsel<\/a> for mentioning that.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump has had plenty of moments of confusion<\/a> in recent weeks as well. Among other things, he has mixed up his Republican opponent Nikki Haley with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi<\/a>, claimed to have beaten Barack Obama in 2016 rather than Hillary Clinton and warned that the country is on the verge of World War II.<\/p>\n The moment Mr. Biden was referring to came during a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference<\/a> in Maryland over the weekend when Mr. Trump was praising Mrs. Trump and then, as the audience applauded, said, \u201cOh, look at that, Mercedes \u2014 that\u2019s pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Meyers played that clip before Mr. Biden came out on the show, mocking Mr. Trump for seeming to have forgotten Mrs. Trump\u2019s name. But Mr. Trump was addressing Mercedes Schlapp, a former White House adviser whose husband, Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, hosts the conference, according to the former president\u2019s spokesman, Steven Cheung. \u201cThe clips were taken out of context by disingenuous people,\u201d Mr. Cheung said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Still, Mr. Trump has in the past misspelled Melania\u2019s name on Twitter<\/a> as \u201cMelanie.\u201d And during a deposition in the defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll, Mr. Trump mistakenly identified a picture of Ms. Carroll as Marla Maples, his second wife. A jury found that Mr. Trump sexually abused Ms. Carroll in the 1990s, and a separate jury ordered him to pay $83.3 million<\/a> for defaming her.<\/p>\n Mr. Biden joined Mr. Meyers to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the late-night show, a decade after appearing on the program\u2019s debut episode in 2014 when he was vice president. It was Mr. Biden\u2019s fourth appearance on a late-night talk show since becoming president. He was a guest of Jimmy Fallon in 2021<\/a>, of Jimmy Kimmel in 2022<\/a> and on \u201cThe Daily Show\u201d in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n The audience was an important one for Mr. Biden, who relied on strong support among younger voters to defeat Mr. Trump in 2020 and needs them again despite surveys showing disenchantment among that generation. But he slipped when asked about his 2024 agenda. \u201cThe 2020 agenda is to finish the job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n