Joe Biden’s Age Shaping Up to Be a Campaign Issue for 2024: President Joe Biden’s age has become a concern even for Democrats, and political opponents are making hay out of it.
Biden, who is 80 today, would be 86 if he served a second term to completion in 2029.
Joe Biden: An Age Problem?
Former South Carolina Gov. and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, mused that Biden would not finish another term.
“I think we can all be very clear and say with a matter of fact that if you vote for Joe Biden, you really are counting on a President Harris,” Haley said in an interview on the Fox News show “America Reports” on Wednesday.
Biden’s age was also an issue during his press conference on Wednesday alongside South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in the White House Rose Garden. Biden announced his campaign for re-election on Tuesday in a video released online.
What Do the Polls Say?
A Los Angeles Times reporter cited a poll that noted that 70% of Americans did not want him running for a second term.
“(The American electorate is) going to see a race, and they’re going to judge whether or not I have it or don’t have it. I respect them taking a hard look at it. I take a hard look at it as well – I took a hard look at it before I decided to run, and I feel good, I feel excited about the prospects,” Biden said. “I think I still would be running if (Trump) wasn’t. I do know him well … Look, there’s just – there’s more to finish the job. We have an opportunity to put ourselves in a position where we are economically and politically secure for a long time… So, I think we have to finish the job and nail it down,”
What Does History Say?
Age has not played as much of a role in a re-election campaign since 1984 when former President Ronald Reagan. He quipped to former Vice President Walter Mondale during a debate that he would not hold his “youth and inexperience” against him. Reagan, like Biden, was accused of being inattentive and unfocused during his second term.
Biden would be three years older than Reagan was when he made his struggle with Alzheimer’s public in 1994 if he were to complete a second term.
Sixty-one percent of Democrats surveyed in a Reuters-Ipsos poll this week agreed that Biden was too old for another term.
Is Joe Struggling?
He already looks dazed and confused, and that has caused concern. His trip to Ireland made this apparent because he sometimes stared into space and seemed out of touch with his surroundings. It will not get better as he ages further.
“If it’s Trump, Biden can do it. He’s already beaten him once, and Trump is no spring chicken. If Republicans put up a younger candidate, the age issue will be a major problem for Biden,” Fox News quoted Clinton Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich as having said last month. “I can tell you from experience and observation that the job of the American presidency is physically and mentally grueling even for people in their 40s. If reelected, Biden would be 86 at the end of his second term (assuming he made it to the end). That’s deeply worrying.”
Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton similarly questioned Biden’s abilities past age 80.
“My stomach clenches at the prospect of a venerable president becoming incapable of strong leadership for all the dangers of aging past 80, at the inevitable wince-worthy moments that may accrue to the point of putting our nation at risk,” Lawton said.
Biden’s age could put increased focus on Vice President Kamala Harris in case he becomes incapacitated.
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John Rossomando’s work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award in 2008 for his reporting.