Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden this week disputed the Trump campaign’s contention that the 77-year-old Mr. Biden has lost a step or two by touting his ability to run up ramps.
“Look at how [Trump] steps and look at how I step. Watch how I run up ramps and he stumbles down ramps, OK?” Mr. Biden told ABC 27 News in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Biden said it’s a “legitimate question” to ask about each candidate’s health. President Trump is 74 and Mr. Biden will be 78 on inauguration day next year.
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“My health is good, but I’m a great respecter of fate,” he said. “I realize anything can happen to anybody at any age, any time. But I promise you I would not be running unless I was in very good health.”
He says he works out every morning and is in “relatively good shape.”
The Biden campaign recently released an ad that included a clip of Mr. Biden half-jogging up a ramp to deliver a West Point graduation address and a clip of Mr. Trump gingerly walking down a ramp after giving a graduation speech earlier this year.
Mr. Biden had challenged an 83-year-old man at an Iowa event last year to do push-ups or go running with him after the man had reportedly referred to the former vice president’s age.
The president, meanwhile, has vociferously denied having a series of mini-strokes last year.
A recent book said Vice President Mike Pence was told to be on stand-by to assume the powers of the presidency if Mr. Trump needed to undergo a procedure that required anesthesia during a trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in November.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump will have a chance to challenge each other’s machismo face-to-face in the first presidential debate in three weeks.
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