The old story: Biden team veers from humour to hardball to tackle age issue

The White House has adopted a new, aggressive tone to negative reports about the 80-year-old president's fitness to govern but could it backfire?

Joe Biden began his press conference at the JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi in Vietnam at 9.09pm local time. Good evening, everyone - it is evening, isn't it?" he said, prompting laughter. About 25 minutes later, the 80-year-old US president had another quip: I don't know about you, but I'm going to go to bed."

Headline writers pounced. The Daily Beast website declared: Biden Wraps Up G20 Conference by Announcing I'm Going to Bed'". But unusually, the White House fired back. Ben LaBolt, its communications director, retorted sarcastically on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: Presidents shall never sleep. Not even at night after days of marathon meetings overseas. Sage guidance from the Daily Beast. Next up in the series: presidents shall never eat."