After making history by electing the oldest president in American history, President Joe Biden's age has "increasingly become an uncomfortable issue for him, his team and his party," New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker reported on Saturday.
Baker noted the White House scrapped plans for a "crazy" 10-day Middle East trip and instead cut the trip back to just four days.
"Just a year and a half into his first term, Mr. Biden is already more than a year older than Ronald Reagan was at the end of two terms. If he mounts another campaign in 2024, Mr. Biden would be asking the country to elect a leader who would be 86 at the end of his tenure, testing the outer boundaries of age and the presidency. Polls show many Americans consider Mr. Biden too old, and some Democratic strategists do not think he should run again," Baker reported.
The report comes against the backdrop of growing disenchantment as the administration fails on public policy outcomes while refusing to fight as hard as it could.
"It is, unsurprisingly, a sensitive topic in the West Wing. In interviews, some sanctioned by the White House and some not, more than a dozen current and former senior officials and advisers uniformly reported that Mr. Biden remained intellectually engaged, asking smart questions at meetings, grilling aides on points of dispute, calling them late at night, picking out that weak point on Page 14 of a memo and rewriting speeches like his abortion statement on Friday right up until the last minute," Baker reported. "But they acknowledged Mr. Biden looks older than just a few years ago, a political liability that cannot be solved by traditional White House stratagems like staff shake-ups or new communications plans. His energy level, while impressive for a man of his age, is not what it was, and some aides quietly watch out for him. He often shuffles when he walks, and aides worry he will trip on a wire. He stumbles over words during public events, and they hold their breath to see if he makes it to the end without a gaffe."
David Gergen, who served as chief speechwriter in the Nixon administration, White House communications director in the Ford and Reagan administrations, and as counselor to the president during the Clinton administration, believes Biden is too old to run for president again.
“I do feel it’s inappropriate to seek that office after you’re 80 or in your 80s,” Gergen said. “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.”
His age appears to be hurting Democrats' standing in the court of public opinion.
"Questions about Mr. Biden’s fitness have nonetheless taken a toll on his public standing. In a June survey by Harvard’s Center for American Political Studies and the Harris Poll, 64 percent of voters believed he was showing that he is too old to be president, including 60 percent of respondents 65 or older," Baker noted. "Mr. Biden’s public appearances have fueled that perception. His speeches can be flat and listless. He sometimes loses his train of thought, has trouble summoning names or appears momentarily confused. More than once, he has promoted Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her 'President Harris.'”
Read the full report.
