President Biden often has had a ready rejoinder for anyone who expresses concerns about his age: \u201cWatch me.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he arrives at the rostrum at the front of the U.S. House chamber on Thursday night, he will have more Americans watching him than he has had in some time. In an election year where a chief concern among voters is whether the 81-year-old president is fit enough for another four years, the State of the Union address is taking on outsize importance as a way for him to confront the topic.<\/p>\n
Allies hope he can alleviate questions by giving a strong speech, showcasing mental quickness and command of the issues. Opponents will be ready to seize on any physical or mental misstep, minor or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has to make the case it\u2019s not about numerical age, it\u2019s about the age of his ideas,\u201d said Mitch Landrieu, the former New Orleans mayor and co-chair of Biden\u2019s reelection campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he says, \u2018Watch me,\u2019 he\u2019s not saying, \u2018Watch me do 20 push-ups.\u2019 He\u2019s 81 years old,\u201d added Landrieu, who was a top White House adviser until January. \u201cThis is not about muscle, it\u2019s about intellect, wisdom, character. When they have a choice between him and Donald Trump \u2014 and Trump, by the way, looks like he had a couple of extra Big Macs \u2014 I believe the public is going to choose wisdom and experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Landrieu\u2019s comments reflect one of the Biden team\u2019s major rejoinders regarding his age \u2014 that Trump, the likely Republican nominee, is almost as old at 77 and routinely mixes up basic facts. Trump has said he sometimes uses names interchangeably on purpose.<\/p>\n
Biden in recent weeks has been alternately prickly and lighthearted, defensive and self-deprecating, when it comes to addressing his advanced age (\u201cI know I don\u2019t look it \u2014 I\u2019ve been around a long while, though,\u201d he recently told the nation\u2019s governors). Thursday\u2019s prime-time address comes just weeks after special counsel Robert Hur released a report that painted a devastating portrait of Biden\u2019s memory as \u201csignificantly limited.\u201d Hur is scheduled to testify before Congress next week, an event that could refocus attention on his claims that Biden could not recall the year his vice presidency began or when his son Beau died, which Biden has denied.<\/p>\n
The State of the Union also comes on the heels of Biden\u2019s annual physical exam, after which his doctor released a letter declaring that no major concerns had arisen over the past year and determining that the president \u201ccontinues to be fit for duty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet polls suggest that Biden\u2019s overriding challenge between now and November is tamping down concerns about his age. His success or failure Thursday will probably be quickly evident, as one side or the other grabs snippets to use in its ads.<\/p>\n
Republicans have chosen Sen. Katie Boyd Britt (Ala.), who at 42 is the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the Senate, to give their party\u2019s official response on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
The pick seems designed to highlight the large age gap, while sidestepping the fact that Trump is almost as old as Biden. \u201cAt this decisive moment in our country\u2019s history, it\u2019s time for the next generation to step up and preserve the American dream for our children and our grandchildren,\u201d Britt said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Stuart Jay Olshansky, a professor of public health at the University of Illinois Chicago who analyzes the longevity of presidents, said that ultimately there is only so much Biden can do to discount the age question.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t much you can say \u2014 it\u2019s not like you can deny you\u2019re an older man,\u201d Olshansky said. \u201cHe could do hair and makeup. It seems like that\u2019s being done by Donald Trump. It might make him look a little younger. But it\u2019s not going to work. He is who he is. I would basically just embrace who you are: \u2018This is who I am, I\u2019m not perfect.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Olshansky noted that Biden\u2019s recent physical exam included a detailed summary of his health. \u201cThe evidence pointed to an extraordinarily healthy older man,\u201d he said. \u201cYeah, he\u2019s got problems with his gait. He\u2019s got arthritis in his back and neuropathy in his feet. But that has nothing to do with his abilities to make judgments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden\u2019s advisers often criticize what they see as a media-driven obsession over the president\u2019s age, but polls show it is an enduring focal point for voters weighing his reelection. Some voice concern not only about Biden\u2019s mental acuity at the moment, but also about the fact that he is entering a phase of life when people\u2019s health can decline suddenly and he would be 86 at the end of a second term.<\/p>\n
Biden\u2019s age also came up during his 2020 campaign, when he was 77, but polling suggests that Americans\u2019 concern has grown during his time in office.<\/p>\n
A recent survey by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that some 63 percent of Americans say they are either not very confident or not confident at all in Biden\u2019s mental ability to serve as president. A smaller share, 57 percent, said the same about Trump.<\/p>\n
Among independents, about 80 percent said they lack confidence in Biden\u2019s mental sharpness, compared with 56 percent for Trump. Democrats are also less confident in Biden than Republicans are about Trump, the survey found.<\/p>\n
That discrepancy is an ongoing frustration for Biden\u2019s campaign aides, who argue that Trump shows far more signs of mental shakiness than Biden, citing his tendency to wander off-script during rallies and to mix up, for example, Biden and former president Barack Obama. The Biden campaign has begun aggressively highlighting Trump\u2019s gaffes in an effort to alter voters\u2019 perceptions.<\/p>\n
At a recent rally in Richmond, Trump insisted that sometimes \u201cI purposely mix up a name\u201d \u2014 like substituting former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley \u2014 \u201cbecause they\u2019re interchangeable in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Olshansky said Trump\u2019s aggressive public demeanor may work in his favor.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe does have risks, but he doesn\u2019t come across as old as Biden does,\u201d Olshansky said. \u201cSome of that might be the benefit of carrying excess weight \u2014 it does make you look more robust. And then hair and makeup work effectively to make you look younger.\u201d Biden, in contrast, looks less healthy than he is: \u201cIt might not seem like it because he\u2019s shuffling around, but he is exercising on a daily basis. He barely takes any medication. He has a coronary profile of that of a marathon runner. He has a strong support system and sees a doctor every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is unclear whether Biden will explicitly bring up the age issue during the State of the Union address, but some close to him view the speech in the entirety \u2014 if delivered forcefully and articulately \u2014 as the best rebuttal to those who question his mental sharpness. They also view other venues as better for making light of the age question; at a recent campaign fundraiser, for example, when a participant mentioned Aristotle, Biden joked that he knew him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think State of the Union is much too important to be concerned about age,\u201d said Ted Kaufman, a former Democratic senator for Delaware and longtime Biden aide and confidant. \u201cThe campaigning has just begun over the last month. This is a chance for him to lay out what are the major issues facing the country and what does he think about them. There\u2019s no other opportunity to do that like the State of the Union.\u201d<\/p>\n
White House officials say the speech will focus on the president\u2019s policy achievements, including lowering drug costs, and will highlight his fight to protect reproductive health care. They mocked GOP critics for raising questions about his age.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepublican officials have desperately attacked President Biden over the timing of his birthday since before he won the most votes ever,\u201d White House spokesman Andrew Bates said. \u201cDuring that time, the only thing that has aged more poorly than bets against Joe Biden is the quality of extreme right-wing ideas like national abortion bans and tax giveaways for the rich.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some Biden allies said they hoped the speech would yield a spontaneous incident like one that unfolded last year, when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) shouted that Biden was a \u201cliar\u201d and Biden jousted with Republicans in a way that was both folksy and feisty, including an exchange on protecting Social Security.<\/p>\n
It was a moment that triggered high fives in the White House, and it\u2019s one that Biden has recounted dozens of times, including as recently as two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust doing what he did last year would be a huge victory for the president,\u201d said Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to Obama and co-host of \u201cPod Save America.\u201d \u201cThe vast majority of people who tell pollsters they have concerns about Joe Biden\u2019s age haven\u2019t seen him speak, maybe since last year. Maybe they\u2019ve seen a clip on TikTok or something on social media, but they haven\u2019t seen a whole speech.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because Republicans have spent so much time portraying Biden as essentially senile, Pfeiffer said, he can benefit enormously from lowered expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the opportunity. Go up there and do what you do most days, and you will dramatically over-perform what people\u2019s expectations are because they\u2019re basing those opinions on a caricature that\u2019s been painted of him,\u201d Pfeiffer added. \u201cAnd the State of the Union is a great format. You look presidential, it\u2019s powerful, there\u2019s raucous applause on many of the things you say.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Biden can become testy when reporters or critics mention his age, it is clearly something he reflects on. In 2021, when Biden met Pope Francis, he recounted one of his often-told stories about Satchel Paige, a pitcher who played Major League Baseball in his 40s and was asked by reporters about his age.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Boys, that\u2019s not how I look at age. I look at it this way: How old would you be if you didn\u2019t know how old you were?\u2019\u201d Biden said, paraphrasing Paige.<\/p>\n
Then, looking at the pope, who was in his 80s, the president said, \u201cYou\u2019re 65. And I\u2019m 60!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
President Biden often has had a ready rejoinder for anyone who expresses concerns about his age: \u201cWatch me.\u201d When he arrives at the rostrum at the front of the U.S. House chamber on Thursday night, he will have more Americans watching him than he has had in some time. In an election year where a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}