DUBLIN – Joe Biden hasn’t yet officially announced whether he’ll run for U.S. president again – but the government of Ireland sees him as still the right man for the job.
Foreign Minister Micheál Martin, who’s been by Biden’s side during much of the president’s three-day tour of the Republic of Ireland, says he’s convinced that what the world needs “at a time of great danger” is four more years of Biden.
When asked whether he thought the 80-year-old Biden could remain sufficiently fit for a second term, Martin – a youthful 62 himself – said he’d seen enough of Biden’s hands-on energy to conclude that politics is the very thing that sustains him.
“Certainly he draws energy from politics, he draws energy from people, and he’s a natural politician. There’s no waning of the appetite,” Martin said, referring in particular to their Wednesday tour of County Louth north of Dublin, when Biden pressed the flesh for hours in the border town of Dundalk and clambered around Carlingford Castle.
RTÉ radio in Dublin asked Martin whether Biden’s advanced age meant it would soon be time for him to leave the political stage.
“I don’t think so,” Martin replied. “At a time of great danger in the world, we are very fortunate that we have a man of balance and experience and wisdom at the helm.
“When the potential threats of a nuclear conflagration are there, and we have somebody who understands foreign policy intimately and understands the lines that have to be walked and navigated here, we can all feel a bit safer with the fact that Joe Biden is president and at the helm in the White House,” said Martin, who is also Ireland’s defense minister.
While Martin described his comments as “personal and subjective,” they carry particular weight because they come from one of Ireland’s most respected politicians and, until December, its prime minister atop Ireland’s three-party government. The Fianna Fáil party leader has a reputation as a canny political survivor who chooses his words with care.
While Ireland officially maintains neutrality on the Democrat-Republican divide, Martin’s comments on Biden reflect official Irish nerves that a Republican winner of the White House in 2024 wouldn’t maintain such firm support for Ukraine’s defense of its territory. Ireland, though militarily neutral and not a NATO member, is hosting more than 70,000 Ukrainian refugees and has consistently condemned Russia’s aggression.
Martin also criticized a former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster, for saying Biden “hates the United Kingdom,” a view being pushed this week in right-wing newspapers in London and on the GB News channel, where Foster is now a broadcaster.
“The one word that you do not associate with Joe Biden is the word ‘hate’,” Martin said. “He’s more love than hate by a country mile.”
