Michael Moore: Those pushing Biden to stay in race committing 'elder abuse'
Michael Moore is blasting President Biden's allies, accusing them of "elder abuse" for "pushing" the commander in chief to stay in the race against former President Trump.
"The problem here is that I think there's a form of elder abuse going on here, where the Democratic Party and the people that are part of the apparatus are pushing and pushing and pushing him to stay," the "Fahrenheit 9/11" director told MSNBC's Ayman Mohyeldin in an interview Sunday.
"In spite of my criticisms about Gaza with Biden, watching the debate a week ago was heartbreaking," Moore said of the president's performance late last month against former President Trump in Atlanta.
The debate — which 81-year-old Biden has called a "bad episode" and not indicative of a larger condition after he struggled to complete some sentences and spoke in a raspy voice — ignited calls for him to exit the 2024 presidential race.
"Imagine that was your father up there. ... Why isn't anybody doing anything? Why did they do it? Why did they even let him go out on the stage in this condition? Who was looking out for him? Who's looking out for him right now?" Moore exclaimed.
Anyone with older family members, he said, has "seen the decline of the people we love as they get older. It's normal. It happens."
"That's not to say that somebody shouldn't be able to be president at 81 — I don't believe that," he continued.
"This is not an ageist attitude here," the 70-year-old Academy Award winner said.
"Something was wrong that night. We all saw it. We can't unsee it. And as Richard Pryor and before that, Chico Marx said, 'Who are you going to believe, me or your own lying eyes?'"
"My eyes weren't lying, and yours weren't either," he said.
Moore, a fierce critic of Trump, also took issue with Biden's response to George Stephanopoulos in an interview last week, when the ABC News anchor asked how he would feel if he continues in the race and Trump is elected in November.
"I'll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the good as job as I know I can do, that's what this is about," Biden replied.
"I had a colonoscopy a couple months ago, and you know, they put you out," Moore said. "And just as you're counting backwards from 10, I just looked up at the doctor and I said, 'Hey, I'm going to come back, right?' And he says, 'Well, I'm going to do my best, and I'm going to give it my all.' And I'm like, 'What?'" he quipped.
"No, you don't say something like that when you're the president of the United States," he added.
"There's more at stake here than to just say, 'Well, you know, at least I'll feel like I gave it my all.'"