"One candidate is too old and mentally unfit to be president. The other person is me."
This was stated by US President Joe Biden during the annual media dinner.
Biden has trailed in a number of polls and has faced concerns among voters about his age, which he has tried to address by highlighting Trump, 77,'s recent verbal lapses.
In his speech, Biden lashed out at Republicans in Congress who have launched an impeachment inquiry into his son's business dealings, saying they would "rather fail at impeachment than succeed at anything else," US media reported.
He added that Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, sitting at the same table with Biden on the eve of St Patrick's Day, "looked at Congress and asked for another Guinness".
During the meeting at the White House, Varadkar and Biden urged Republicans in Congress to stop blocking military aid to Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion.
However, Biden then returned to Trump, saying that the Democratic campaign will show how they have rebuilt the US economy after the Covid-19 pandemic "without encouraging Americans to inject themselves with bleach".
He was referring to the incident when Trump, in his capacity as president, asked a top medical adviser whether victims of the virus could be injected with a disinfectant to cure them.
"Look, I wish these were jokes, but they're not," Biden added.
"Democracy and freedom are literally under attack. Putin is on the march in Europe. My predecessor is bowing to him and saying, 'Do whatever the hell you want.'
Noting that Estonian Prime Minister Kaia Kalas, a vocal critic of Russia, was also at his table, he added: "We won't bend, they won't bend and I won't bend."
Biden added that Trump's false claims that he had won the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by pro-Trump rioters showed that there is "poison running" in the veins of our democracy.
He also backed journalists, whom Trump has repeatedly attacked, adding: "You are not the enemy of the people. You are a pillar of any free society." /BGNES
