‘SNL’ Sketch Skewering Biden’s Age Gets Pushback From Alejandro Mayorkas: ‘They Should Spend Time With Joe Biden’ | Video

“Saturday Night Live” opened up this week’s broadcast with a cold open about President Joe Biden’s age. The sketch featured Heidi Gardner as CNN’s Dana Bash, who interviewed several Biden allies, each of whom insisted Biden is incredibly sharp and impressive — but only behind closed doors.

On Sunday morning, the real Bash asked the real Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who’d been played by featured cast member Marcello Hernandez, his thoughts about the “SNL” sketch. Mayorkas replied, ‘They should spend a bit of time with Joe Biden like I have done.”‘

“Let me share something with you,” he continued. “I prepare a lot for meetings with him, and engagements with him, because he’s remarkably detail-oriented, probing and operationally-focused.”

Voters’ concerns about Biden’s age have dogged the president’s bid for reelection. An NBC News poll released Feb. 6 revealed that 76% of voters are worried the 81-year-old may not have “the necessary mental and physical health to be president for a second term.”

“Pod Save America” host and former Barack Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau also tackled the topic last month after New York Times journalist and podcaster Ezra Klein suggested that Biden step aside entirely so that Democrats can run another candidate instead.

Even Hollywood has weighed in. In an interview with the Times of London, Annette Bening insisted that Biden has “been a phenomenal president” but also added of his age, “I think that everyone is concerned. Not because he’s not capable of it, but because of how being in the public eye can be, you get caught off-guard, because his age is worrying.”

Biden himself made light of the topic on Tuesday while visiting with Seth Meyers. After the host joked that the president’s age is a problem for voters, Biden responded, “Number one, you gotta take a look at the other guy. He’s about as old as I am, but he can’t even remember his wife’s name.”

He added that the real concern should be about “how old your ideas are.” Biden said, “Look, I mean, 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 — 50, 60 years, they’ve been solid American positions. And I really mean this sincerely, I think it’s about the future.”

“Every single thing we’ve done — I think we’ve gotten some good things done. And they told us we couldn’t get them done, ’cause things were so divided. But I think everything we’ve gotten done, he’s just frontally stated he wants to do away with if he gets elected.”

Watch the full interview with Mayorkas in the video at the top of this story.

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