In the days following Sen. Mitch McConnell’s apparent medical episode while holding a press conference on Wednesday — one that left him frozen and silent for 40 seconds before stepping away from the podium — concerns for the politician’s health, calls for his resignation and reinvigorated arguments for set term limits have all come to the fore.
Joining that chorus Friday was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Interviewing with Megyn Kelly on the conservative news personality’s eponymous podcast and web series, the 2024 presidential hopeful said, “You used to kind of serve in your prime and then pass the baton to the next generation. I think this generation has not really been as willing to do that.”
While DeSantis eventually led his argument that aged politicians should forfeit their positions to spritely political hopefuls to sitting President Joe Biden, who’s 80 years old to his own 44, the governor said, “I think the American people, I do think they’re ready to kind of say, ‘OK, let’s try the next generation.’”
Kelly introduced the topic in the “Megyn Kelly Show” interview, which dropped on her YouTube channel Friday, by noting McConnell’s Wednesday incident.
“Unfortunately this week, Mitch McConnell suffered a medical incident in front of the microphones, made a lot of news. Now we’ve learned that he collapsed at least one other time in recent history. He’s 81 years old,” she said. “We’ve seen some problems with other politicians around that age, including our current president. What does this tell you, if anything, about the dangers or the risks in electing people in their 80s to serve?”
“It used to not be that way,” DeSantis said. “I mean, you used to kind of serve in your prime and then pass the baton to the next generation. I think this generation has not really been as willing to do that.”
DeSantis then turned his attention to Biden.
“Look, I think that we need — and one of the reasons I’m running compared to Biden, I mean my gosh — we need energy in the executive, we need some vigor, some vitality… We’re going to take advantage of every opportunity. But you’ve got to be vigorous, you got to have energy to be able to do that. And so I think the American people, I do think they’re ready to kind of say, ‘OK, let’s try the next generation.’”
Kelly, maintaining the anti-Biden dialogue, noted that “you’re basically half his age.”
“He got elected as a senator before I was even born,” the governor quipped.
Watch the full “Megyn Kelly Show” segment in the video above.
