Top Republican strategist Karl Rove, now a Fox News contributor, said during a segment this week that the U.S. has been governed by the “boomer” generation for nearly 32 years, and that now is the time for fresh leadership on both sides of the aisle.
Rove made the remarks when asked about his Wall Street Journal column this week, “Okay Boomers, Let Go Of The Presidency.”
“President Biden is thinking about, he’s 80 years old, he’s thinking about seeking reelection. He’d be 82, shortly before his, if he were to win, his second inaugural; he’d be closer to 90 at the end of his second term. He’s already struggling; who thinks he’s going to get better?” Rove said. “Is he going to get mentally sharper? Is he going to get physically more energetic? Is he going to be on top of things better than he has been? Are we going to have fewer missteps in his communication? Are we going to have less confusion at the end of events? Are we going to have stronger leadership? No. The answer is no.”
“And the same with his potential opponent, Donald Trump, who … would be 78 at the time of his, at the time of the election and hoping to serve, he can only serve one term, hoping to be, you know, he’d be 82, 83 by the time he finishes that term if he got elected,” he continued.
“In 2024, we will have been governed by a boomer president for 32 years, and the time has come to pass the mantle of leadership, in my opinion, to a younger generation to be the chief executive of the United States,” he later added.
WATCH:
TRANSCRIPT:
JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS: All right, switching back to domestic politics now. New reports this week that the Biden family is giving their full support if the president decides to run again in 2024. He will be nearly 82 years old on Election Day if he runs again. Our next guest has got a plea for both parties: please let a younger generation step in. Let’s bring in Karl Rove. And Karl, I want to point to your column in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, where you said, let’s put it up on the screen, “Okay, Boomers, Let Go of the Presidency,” said the boomer.
KARL ROVE, POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Yeah. So look, you and I are both boomers. I don’t think either one of us, frankly, is up to the job of being President of the United States. We both know from having been around the White House that this is a pretty demanding job. And think about it, President Biden is thinking about — he’s 80 years old — he’s thinking about seeking reelection, he’d be 82, shortly before his, if he were to win, his second inaugural, he’d be closer to 90 at the end of his second term. He’s already struggling; who thinks he’s going to get better? Is he going to get mentally sharper? Is he going to get physically more energetic? Is he going to be on top of things better than he has been? Are we going to have fewer missteps in his communication? Are we going to have less confusion at the end of events? Are we going to have stronger leadership? No. The answer is no. And the same with his potential opponent, Donald Trump, who … would be 78 at the time of his, at the time of the election and hoping to serve, he can only serve one term, hoping to be, you know, he’d be 82, 83 by the time he finishes that term if he got elected.
ROBERTS: So you’re saying that what we need to do is we need to turn back the clock and look at 1960 — or I guess 1992 is a good comparative time period as well — when the older guard was replaced by the new guard.
ROVE: Yeah, think about it. In 1960, we had an election in which the country said, you know what, we really appreciate Dwight D. Eisenhower, but he was born before the turn of the 20th century. He’s the last president of the United States born in the 19th century. And they chose, they ended up selecting two young men, the youngest candidates on both the Democratic side and Republican side won their respective party nominations, both of them in the in their 40s, both of them combat veterans, ironically enough, of the Pacific Theater in World War Two. And for 32 years thereafter, we were governed by somebody from the greatest generation. John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan. George H.W. Bush was the last of that generation. He was defeated by a boomer. In 2024, we will have been governed by a boomer president for 32 years, and the time has come to pass the mantle of leadership, in my opinion, to a younger generation to be the chief executive of the United States.
ROBERTS: Well, there are a number of them out there, though nobody on the Democratic side willing to put up their hand and say, “I’m going to challenge Joe Biden.”
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