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

Joe Biden began his press conference at the JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi in Vietnam at 9.09pm local time.

The Daily Beast website declared: “Biden Wraps Up G20 Conference by Announcing I’m Going to Bed’ But unusually, the White House fired back.

It suggested a newly pugnacious approach from Biden’s communications team over his age.

White House has condemned Trump ’s frequent attacks on fake news’ and pledged to defend the freedom of the press.

Political analysts say that calling out individual members of the media is unlikely to win friends in the long term.

The challenges facing Biden , who turns 81 in November , were underlined this week when Republicans in the House of Representatives announced an impeachment inquiry into unproven corruption.

Biden 's gaffes tend to be seen through the prism of a fading octogenarian.

But there will have to be enough to drown out the many clips circulating on rightwing media of Biden falling off a bike near his Delaware beach house last year or tripping over a sandbag at the Air Force Academy commencement.