President Joe Biden bristled when asked if he could meet the challenges of a second term during a rare print interview that attracted attention for his notably weaker defense of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Biden, the oldest man to serve as president, has faced scrutiny over his age. He would be 86 at the end of his presidency if he beats presumptive Republican nominee former President Donald Trump in November.
“I can do it better than anybody you know,” Biden told Time in a profile published Tuesday. “You’re looking at me. I can take you, too.”
At the same time, interviewer Massimo Calabresi wrote how Biden’s “stiff gait, muffled voice, and fitful syntax … cut a striking contrast with the intense, loquacious figure who served as senator and vice president” after their sit-down last week.
During the over 90-minute appointment and 35-minute interview, which concentrated on Biden’s foreign policy, the president reflected on his approach to international relationships, describing alliances that are “values-based” and “practical-based.”
Nine months into Israel‘s war against Hamas, sparked by the terrorist organization‘s Oct. 7 attack, Biden said it is “uncertain” whether Israeli military forces have committed war crimes in Gaza, adding it “has been investigated by the Israelis themselves” and that the United States did not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, which is seeking arrest warrants for senior Israeli and Hamas figures.
Despite Biden’s original support of Israel’s right to defend itself after the attack, his already-tenuous relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has soured the longer the war has dragged on, in part because of domestic political pressures amid poor humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
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When asked if Netanyahu was prolonging the war for his own political reasons, Biden responded, “I’m not going to comment on that. There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.”
Last week, Biden publicly called on Israel and Hamas to end the war and accept a ceasefire deal that both Democrats and Republicans have criticized.