President Joe Biden did not take questions following a White House event on Tuesday and appeared to freeze up at the event’s conclusion.

Biden was holding an event with his Competition Council on efforts his administration is making to lower costs and right “corporate rip-offs.” The president said he would not take questions after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin finished speaking.

“I better not start the questions; I’ll get in trouble,” Biden said before lowering the microphone.

He then froze for several seconds as reporters shouted questions, hoping the president would change his mind and answer their question.

The freeze up from the president comes as he is facing questions about his age and mental acuity heading into a fierce election matchup against former President Donald Trump in November.

During events and remarks in recent years, the 81-year-old Biden has frozen up or made errors — such as confusing the presidents of Egypt and Mexico when discussing the war in Gaza. Last month, special counsel Robert Hur’s report declining to prosecute Biden over his alleged mishandling of classified documents provided a damming assessment of the president’s mental state and detailed his alleged “poor memory.”

Age is set to be a key part of the campaign, as both leading presidential candidates continue to make mistakes on the campaign trail and in other venues. Biden is the oldest president in U.S. history, and his likely opponent in November, Trump, was the second oldest president in the country’s history.

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The president has rejected concerns about his age, reminding voters last week on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers that he is roughly the same age as Trump, 77.

“Take a look at the other guy,” Biden said, when asked about his age. “He’s about as old as I am.”