Chris Matthews urges Biden aides to ‘encourage the guy’ more

Pundit Chris Matthews said top aides to President Biden should “encourage” him more and assure him people have confidence in him amid a slew of negative headlines and public polling showing concerns about Biden’s age.

“Biden’s got to get out there and mix it up,” Matthews said during a recent appearance on MSNBC, the network he used to host a prime-time show on. “He’s going to have to get on the corner and meet people and hang out with regular people and give some speeches and perk people up like Harry Truman did back in 1948.”

Matthews said if he was advising Biden, “you know, if I’m in the back room with him, I’d make him feel better about himself.”

“I’d just be just nice to him and encouraging,” the commentator continued. “That’s one thing staffers should do, encourage the guy, encourage him when he does something really well. He’s had a good couple of days, I think.”

Matthews’s comments were first highlighted by Mediaite.

Biden, 81, is facing intensifying scrutiny about his age following the release of a special counsel report that found he had struggled to recall basic details of his personal and political life.

The president has said his memory is “fine,” and his aides and allies have insisted publicly that the president remains sharp and cognitively competent in private meetings and other behind-the-scenes settings.