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AGE IS JUST A NUMBER — When the clatter of someone tripping interrupted President Joe Biden’s remarks at an Illinois event this week, he paused and asked, “You OK? I want the press to know that wasn’t me.”

His ad lib prompted a big laugh in an otherwise serious speech about his administration’s commitment to union jobs.

It was one of a handful of references he made to his age as the 80-year-old president spoke before a few hundred United Auto Workers employees Wednesday.

Biden’s age, of course, is no laughing matter these days. It’s at the heart of his precarious standing in the polls and he needs a strategy — something, anything — for addressing voters’ concerns about electing an octogenarian to a second term which will end when he is 86 years old.

In August, about three-quarters of adults in an Associated Press-NORC poll said they think Biden is too old to effectively serve as president. Even among Democrats, the numbers were scary — 69% said he was too old.

When asked what words come to mind when mentioning Biden, 26% of all adults cited words associated with age (such as old, outdated, aging and elderly) and 15% mentioned words associated with being slow and confused.

Biden’s likely opponent in 2024, Donald Trump, is a mere three years younger. But the public doesn’t have nearly the same impressions of the 77-year-old former president. Only half said he is too old to effectively serve as president. As far as word association, only 1% associated Trump with age and 3% associated him with being slow and confused. His problem was different — the public associated him with crime and corruption.

That’s a major liability, for sure, but it doesn’t make Biden’s task of convincing voters he’s vigorous enough for a second term any easier.

It’s an issue that’s the subject of much hand-wringing among Democrats, even if they are reluctant to address it publicly for fear of undermining Biden.

Instead, Biden’s allies say age is just a number. They point to the president’s recent travels around the world — and to war zones, no less.

“What people are afraid of is the age of the candidates’ ideas,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker told Wisconsin Democrats at a fundraiser last month. Pritzker, a surrogate for the Biden campaign who’s been mentioned as a future presidential candidate himself, sees age as an asset.

“Folks … Lauren Boebert is only 36. J.D. Vance is 39. Matt Gaetz is 41. We all agree that they may be young, but what they stand for is old and ugly,” he said, referencing lightning-rod Republicans in Congress who are half Biden’s age.

Biden appears to be embracing that thinking in the hopes of neutralizing the issue.

At the White House Correspondents Dinner a few months ago, he spoke directly to the point with a self-deprecating age joke, saying, “I believe in the First Amendment and not just because my good friend Jimmy Madison wrote it.”

More recently, speaking at the UAW event Wednesday, he pointed to the red UAW T-shirt he wore awkwardly over his dress shirt. “I’ve been involved with the UAW longer than you were alive, man,” he told the audience, to laughter.

“That’s a fact,” he continued. “Some of you weren’t around. You were too young.”

He closed his speech by reminding the audience that wisdom comes with age.

“I can honestly say — and I mean this from the bottom of my heart — I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future than I am today. And I know I only look like I’m 30, but I’ve been around a long time,” he said, prompting another laugh from the crowd. “We have to just keep going.”

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— Judge Aileen Cannon rebuffs Trump’s call for trial delay in classified documents case — for now: Donald Trump’s trial on charges that he hoarded classified military secrets at his Mar-a-Lago estate will remain scheduled for May 20, the federal judge overseeing the case ruled today, rejecting for now demands by the former president to postpone the case until after the presidential election next November. But in a nine-page order, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said she would revisit the trial schedule in March, after Trump and prosecutors working for special counsel Jack Smith have more time to hash out complicated disputes over Trump and his co-defendants’ access to the reams of classified material at the heart of the case.

— What Hunter Biden’s prosecutor told Congress: The federal prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden repeatedly insisted in a closed-door interview with lawmakers that he was never constrained in the probe. David Weiss, the special counsel helming the years-long investigation into the president’s son, sat for the interview with House Judiciary Committee investigators on Tuesday. POLITICO reviewed a transcript of the interview, which is not yet public. The unusual interview, which Weiss agreed to voluntarily, was part of House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry targeting President Joe Biden and his family.

— Biden to press Xi on Iran in APEC meeting next week: President Joe Biden’s concerns about the Israel-Hamas war will spill over into his long-awaited face-to-face meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of APEC on Wednesday. When the two leaders meet at an undisclosed location in the San Francisco Bay area, Biden will urge Xi to use his influence with Tehran to prevent Iran and its proxies from exploiting the Israel-Hamas war to sow a wider regional conflict.

SURVEY SAYS — Donald Trump has held a substantial lead among Republican grassroots leaders for months, but there was still room for other candidates to break through. Now the door appears to be closing, reports POLITICO Magazine.

That’s according to Seth Masket’s latest survey of GOP county chairs from across the country. Among this group of Republicans, the 2024 presidential campaign has looked somewhat more competitive than it has in other polls. Notably, a large contingent of respondents had remained undecided, giving Trump opponents some hope that they could win over a key constituency in the party. Those hopes may be fading, however, as more uncommitted chairs are coming off the fence and backing Trump.

‘POOR CHOICE’ — Chris Sununu says Vivek Ramaswamy doesn’t have the “temperament” to be president.

The New Hampshire governor is closing in on figuring out the right recipient for his coveted endorsement in the Republican primary.

But don’t expect it to go to Ramaswamy. Not after Wednesday’s GOP debate in Miami, in which the biotech entrepreneur and political novice lashed out at everyone from his onstage rivals to the head of the Republican National Committee in attacks that grew more personal as the night wore on.

“He proved last night that he doesn’t have the temperament to handle the stresses of a public executive position,” Sununu told POLITICO.

Pressed on whether Ramaswamy doesn’t have the temperament to be president, specifically, Sununu said “it would be a poor choice.”

INFRASTRUCTURE ATTACK — Ukraine is open to the possibility of attacking Russia’s oil and gas infrastructure if Moscow ramps up its targeting of Ukraine’s electric system this winter, Ukraine Energy Minister German Galushchenko said in an interview.

Galushchenko, speaking with POLITICO in Washington, D.C., after meeting with Biden administration officials and lawmakers, said Russia has regularly perpetrated cyberattacks against Ukraine’s electric grid and is expected to ramp up physical attacks as temperatures fall and people depend more on energy to heat their homes.

His comments came after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month Ukraine, which has launched multiple attacks against Russian targets, would “respond” if Russia stepped up attacks on his country’s power grid this winter. This could open the door to the possibility that the European conflict could add more turmoil to global energy markets.

When asked if Zelenskyy’s “response” could include Ukraine targeting Russia’s vast oil and gas operations — by far the biggest driver of its economy — Galushchenko replied, “It would only be fair.”

REGULATION ROULETTE — The United Arab Emirates quietly established sweeping restrictions on the hundreds of journalists expected to visit the country for international climate talks later this month, reports E&E News.

Now, the UAE says it was a mistake.

The strict rules against publishing news that could antagonize the rulers of the seven monarchies that make up the country were removed from the United Nations’ website for the climate talks after POLITICO’s E&E News asked the UAE for comment this week.

But the incident has inadvertently highlighted the sharp divisions between how the UAE and its Western allies treat journalists and protesters. It comes as E&E News and other outlets have published stories about the conflicts between the Emiratis’ climate commitments and oil ambitions that could have run afoul of the UAE rules.

The constraints on news reporters were spelled out in a “Media Content Standards” issued by the UAE Media Regulatory Office and posted to the website of the U.N. climate agency Oct. 23. The UAE is leading this year’s climate talks, which begin in Dubai on Nov. 30.

The document called for journalists and media outlets to “refrain from publishing anything that could offend directly or indirectly the ruling regime of the State” or that “could be offensive to the national unity and social cohesion.”

BLU-RAY BACK IN BUSINESS — Don’t drop your DVDs in the donation bin just yet. Blu-rays and DVDs could make a comeback in a world dominated by streaming services. After Netflix shipped off its last DVD in September, movie lovers may be opting for physical copies of their favorite films. The trend mimics the revival of vinyl records, but could also fill a gap as more movies and TV shows are stripped from streaming platforms with no DVD rentals backup options. In an article for The Hollywood Reporter, Alex Weprin looks at the potential blu-ray renaissance headed our way and the lingering nostalgia for physical copies of media.