At 79, Biden pushing the limits of presidency, age: NYT
5 Min Read
Biden plans to run for a second round, according to what he has said, however, officials and advisors argue it might not be a good idea.
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US President Joe Biden at 79
Naturally, the age of US President Joe Biden is a touchy subject in the West Wing. The New York Times reported that more than a dozen current and former senior officials and advisors who participated in interviews, some approved by the White House and some not, all agreed that Biden maintained his intellectual rigor by asking insightful questions during meetings, grilling aides on points of contention, calling them late at night, spotting the weak point on Page 14 of a memo, and revising speeches like his remarks on abortion on Friday up until the very last minute.
However, these officials and advisors all conceded that Biden appeared older now than he did a few years ago. This is a political weakness that can't be fixed by standard White House tactics like staff changes or new communications strategies.
While still amazing for a man of his age, according to them, his energy level has decreased, and several assistants are keeping a close eye on him. His walking is often shuffling, and his caregivers are concerned he'll tumble on a wire. They wait with anticipation to see if he avoids a slip-up because he frequently makes mistakes while speaking in front of large crowds.
Watch | #US President #JoeBiden gets distracted by the teleprompter and reads out loud: "repeat the line", instead of saying the line again. pic.twitter.com/vQByzg9px7
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) July 9, 2022
Biden has served just one year and a half of his first term and is now older than Ronald Reagan was when he completed two terms. By pushing the limits of age and presidential eligibility if he runs again in 2024, Biden would be asking the public to choose a president who would be 86 by the conclusion of his term. Many Americans believe Biden is too old, as per the polls, and several Democratic strategists do not believe he should run for office again.
David Gergen, a top advisor to four former Presidents argued, “I do feel it’s inappropriate to seek that office after you’re 80 or in your 80s,” adding that “I have just turned 80 and I have found over the last two or three years I think it would have been unwise for me to try to run any organization. You’re not quite as sharp as you once were.”
S. Jay Olshansky, a longevity specialist at the University of Illinois Chicago, who studied the candidates’ ages in 2020, said, “Right now, there’s no evidence that the age of Biden should matter one ounce.”
The specialist also asserted that despite so it is legitimate to wonder if that would remain so at 86. “If people don’t like his policies, they don’t like what he says, that’s fine, they can vote for someone else. But it’s got nothing to do with how old he is.” As for Biden hitting his high 80s, Olshansky said, “That’s the right question to be asking,” adding that “you can’t sugarcoat aging. Things go wrong as we get older and the risks rise the older we get.”
The notion that Biden was anything other than a seven-day commander-in-chief was rejected by the White House. “President Biden works every day and because chief executives can perform their duties from anywhere in the world, it has long been common for them to spend weekends away from the White House,” Andrew Bates, a deputy press secretary, said after the NYT article was published online.
Nevertheless, in principle, the President was described as "a healthy, vigorous 78-year-old male who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency" by his physician, Dr. Kevin C. O'Connor.
Despite that, Biden's reputation has suffered due to concerns about his health as per the published NYT report. In a June poll conducted by Harvard's Center for American Political Studies and the Harris Poll, 64% of voters, including 60% of those 65 and older, said he was demonstrating that he was too old to be president.
Biden's public frenzies
His public appearances have heightened this impression. He occasionally gives bland, lifeless talks and seems briefly disoriented, loses his stream of thought, or has problems recalling names.
He has referred to Kamala Harris, the vice president, as "President Harris" on several occasions. Biden fumbles over phrases like "kleptocracy", despite having overcome a childhood stammer. He has referred to Ukrainians as Iranians and called Virginia's Democratic Senator Mark Warner "John" multiple times, confusing him with the late Republican senator of the same name from Virginia.
As a matter of fact, the White House has been forced to retract some of his impromptu remarks, such as when he threatened a military response if China attacked Taiwan or said that Russian President Vladimir V. Putin "cannot be in office."
According to the report, Biden is faced with a core problem that is affecting his performance in public without affecting the framework in which the US is working in terms of domestic and foreign policy. The main question remains focused on the second term rather than the first.
