(Inside California Politics) — Former U.S. Senator for California Barbara Boxer said President Joe Biden made it clear he is fit for the presidency after she had given the president two weeks to prove himself following a much-criticized performance at the first 2024 presidential debate against former President Donald Trump.
“I do think the last two weeks he’s been out there,” Boxer said. “We’ve seen him. Look, he’s a little slower, as he says. The words come in a tough way because he has that stutter. He’s had it all his life. Nobody realizes that. Joe has been that way his whole life because he has dealt with the stutter.”
“…The amount of bullying, the amount of pushing this man out the door without understanding the fact that, yes, he had a horrible one night, no question about it,” Boxer said. “And there are reasons for that which he gave, which others have given. But he has shown in the last couple of weeks he still has it.”
Boxer also thinks the president’s record is strong.
“This has been, in my opinion, the greatest economic recovery since FDR and we’re looking at a man who has presided over now almost 16 million jobs created,” Boxer said. “Since the records were kept, best performance.”
Boxer rejects the idea that those numbers are more a result of the timing of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The fact is, when Biden got in was at the peak of COVID,” Boxer said.
Earlier this week, House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi’s support for Biden was questioned when she said he had a decision to make despite the president having already stated he was staying in the race.
“I’ll let Nancy speak for herself,” Boxer said. “My understanding is she’s supporting him. If she’s not, I don’t know about that at all. But I do think there are certain members of Congress who feel they need to go on the record, so go on the record. I don’t really care. They are not going to be the ones who decide this election. It’s going to be the people.”
Boxer encountered a similar situation last year of being questioned about a Democratic colleague and their ability to serve in old age.
Last year, Boxer declined to say whether longtime Senator Dianne Feinstein should step down after some in the party called for her to resign following an extended absence due to medical reasons, as well as her age.
“I never tell anyone when to stay or when to go,” Boxer told Inside California Politics in April of 2023. “It was hard enough for me.”
Feinstein died in office 5 months later at age 90.
