September 12, 2023 08:54 PM
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) bashed former President Donald Trump over his age, suggesting he is too old to competently be president.
In an interview with CBS News, DeSantis, 44, drew a comparison between Trump, 77, and President Joe Biden, 80, over their respective ages. He claimed that their age made it difficult for them to perform their tasks as president competently and that his younger age would allow him to be seen by voters as a fresh new generation.
The Florida governor said voters’ concerns over age were an “absolutely legitimate concern.”
“The presidency is not a job for someone that’s 80 years old, and there’s nothing wrong with being 80,” he continued. “Obviously, I’m the governor of Florida. I know a lot of people who are elderly — they’re great people — but you’re talking about a job where you need to give it 100%. You need, we need, an energetic president.”
“I think that if the founders could kind of look at this again, I do think they probably would have put an age limit on some of these offices,” DeSantis said. “I mean, it seems like our leadership class now in Washington; 75, 80, 80-plus years old is where those folks are, and I think that … if Biden’s the Democrat nominee, I’m the Republican nominee, I think there’s gonna be a lot of Americans that are going to want to see a generational passing of the torch.”
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DeSantis also touched on foreign policy, expressing his desire to support Taiwan, confront China, and isolate North Korea. He clarified his earlier comments about using military force against Mexican drug cartels, hesitating to say whether or not he would send missiles into Mexico.
“We would use all available,” he began before shifting to saying, “The tactics I think can be debated. If you have something you want to accomplish, people would brief you on the different ways to be able to do it. So that would be dependent on the situation.”