Biden shrugs off age to target Trump in combative State of the Union speech

Decision to trumpet job numbers as families still struggle may cost him votes

In 2024, the State of the Union address by United States President Joe Biden could well have been billed as a "state of the President" speech.

An annual fixture of American democracy, the speech by the president to a joint session of Congress typically focuses on important issues facing the United States and makes suggestions for new laws and policies.

But Mr Biden used about an hour of prime time on March 7 to assuage concerns about his age and focus attention on his presumptive rival Donald Trump's intentions.

He also took Republican heckling in his stride, giving back as good as he got.

Mr Biden was under intense scrutiny when he took to the podium. Misgivings about his age have increased ahead of the presidential election on Nov 5, with news channels playing endless loops of him going offstage in the wrong direction or flubbing his lines.

An overwhelming 73 percent of registered voters have told pollsters that they either strongly or somewhat agree that Mr Biden is too old to be an effective president.

At 78, he was the oldest American president to enter the White House. At 81, he is the oldest to seek re-election.

"I've been told I'm too old," he said, adding that the more pertinent question was "how old our ideas are".

"Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are among the oldest of ideas," he said, in a reference to Trump's habit of casting the four criminal cases against him as political persecution.

"But you can't lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back." Mr Biden trails Trump, 77, in a handful of battleground states like Georgia and Michigan that will likely determine the victor of the 2024 election.

He tried to level the difference by taking aim at Trump more than a dozen times in the speech, without naming him once.