The Making of the President 2024-The Question of Joe Biden's Age
When Ronald Reagan ran for re-election as President in 1984, many questioned whether, at age 73, he was too old for what is perhaps the most demanding job in the world. Forty years later, at 81 years of age, Joe Biden was now the oldest sitting president in United States history, and he was running for re-election. Perhaps one of the only things making this less noticeable was that his opponent, former Republican president Donald Trump, was just three and a half years younger than Biden, though Trump appeared to be the much more vigorous of the two elderly candidates. Concerns began to be raised about his Biden's age and his cognitive state.
Biden on his 81st birthday
These concerns grew following an investigation into the handling of classified documents by Biden. Special counsel Robert Hur in his report dated February 8, 2024, characterized Biden as an "elderly man with poor memory" and wrote that Biden's memory "appeared to have significant limitations." White House lawyers as well as Biden himself challenged this characterization, and Biden expressed anger and strong disagreement with this description in a televised press conference on the day the special counsel's report was released. Biden criticized Hur's report for negatively assessing his mental state, describing it as "extraneous commentary", and stated "my memory's fine." But these concerns were not alleviated when, during that same press conference, Biden referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi as being the President of Mexico.
These concerns came to a crescendo after a very poor performance by Biden during televised debate against Donald Trump hosted by CNN held on June 27, 2024. Biden's performance was severely criticized by a number of commentators, many of whom were well-kn0wn Democratic supporters. Some Democratic lawmakers began to call for Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race. Biden did ultimately withdraw his candidacy for President, while stating that he would continue serving as president until the conclusion of his term.
Biden had suffered serious health issues as a younger man. In February 1988, after several episodes of increasingly severe neck pain, Biden underwent surgery to correct a leaking intracranial berry aneurysm. While recuperating from that surgery, he suffered a pulmonary embolism and after a second aneurysm was surgically repaired in May, Biden's recovery from the surgery kept him away from the Senate for seven months.
In 2018, when Biden was considering running for president, he sought the advice of a number of friends, aides, and longtime supporters as to whether he was too old to serve as President of elected. The issue of Biden's age and the question of his fitness for office was discussed by a number of leading news outlets. Many of Biden's opponents for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in 2020 made an issue of Biden's age. Biden was 76 at the time. Biden supporters called this agist discrimination. In a propaganda campaign, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government spread disinformation about Biden's mental health during the 2020 presidential election, but the Department of Homeland Security withheld publication of a bulletin warning law enforcement agencies about this campaign.
Biden's opponent, Donald Trump, has accused Biden of suffering from dementia. At his rallies he has referred to Biden as "Sleepy Joe" and the accusation has been amplified by right-wing media outlets.
During the 2020 campaign Biden called himself a "bridge candidate," and this led many to believe that Biden would not seek a second term. Biden himself has routinely tried to make light of his age by making jokes about it. On Biden's 81st birthday, Biden posted an image of a birthday cake with dozens of candles, jokingly captioned to be for his "146th birthday."
But in a number of polls take, Biden's age was reported to be of significant concern among those polled. In 2022, a New York Times-Sienna College poll found that 61% of Democratic voters wanted someone other than Biden to be the presidential nominee. They cited his age as the main concern. Democrats James Carville and Ezra Klein, as well as the Economist magazine all called for Biden to not run again as early as 2022
Biden's 2024 annual physical examination reported the President to be in good health for a man of his age. Biden is on medication for a form of irregular heartbeat. He also receives treatment for a sleep apnea problem and walks with a stiff gait due to spinal arthritis as well as the results of his previous injuries. But in his examination, no signs of cognitive decline or dementia were mentioned.
In a February 2024 poll, Biden's age and health were major or moderate concerns for 86% of voters generally. This was an increase from a poll taken in 2020 when this number was at 76%. According to another 2024 poll, most of those who voted for Biden in 2020 said they believe he is too old to be an effective president. According to the polling organization, these concerns "cut across generations, gender, race and education". A Wall Street Journal report claimed that since 2023 or earlier, Biden's team has limited his schedule, personal interactions, media appearances, interviews, and unscripted exchanges in order to minimize concerns about his age and mental acuity. Democrats polled were concerned about his ability to serve a second term, as he would be 86 years old by its end. Many of them were also concerned if he could beat Donald Trump a second time.
In January 2024, Dr. Jay Olshansky estimated Biden to have approximately a 75% chance of living through a second term based on publicly available information about his health.
The concerns about Biden's age would become a major issue following Biden's poor performance in a June 27, 2024 televised debate he had with his opponent Donald Trump. That debate will be the subject of tomorrow's post in this series.