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Age and health concerns about Joe Biden

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Joe Biden
Biden in 2023
Born (1942-11-20) November 20, 1942 (age 81)
Potential issues: Dementia, COVID-19, Parkinson's
This article is part of
a series about
Joe Biden
Personal
U.S. Senator from Delaware
47th Vice President of the United States
Vice presidential campaigns
46th President of the United States
Incumbent
Tenure
Policies
Appointments
Presidential campaigns
Joe Biden's signature
Seal of the President of the United States

At 81 years of age, Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States, is the oldest sitting president in United States history.[1][2] Former president Donald Trump raised concerns about his age, including his cognitive state, during and after the 2020 United States presidential election. These concerns increased after a poor performance by Biden during a debate against Trump in the 2024 presidential election, which led a number of commentators and some Democratic lawmakers to call for Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.[3] He later withdrew his candidacy while stating that he would continue serving as president until the conclusion of his term.[4]

Background

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In February 1988, after several episodes of increasingly severe neck pain, Biden underwent surgery to correct a leaking intracranial berry aneurysm.[5][6] While recuperating, he suffered a pulmonary embolism, a serious complication.[6] After a second aneurysm was surgically repaired in May,[6][7] Biden's recuperation kept him away from the Senate for seven months.[8]

In 2018, when Biden was considering running for president, he consulted with friends, aides, and longtime supporters as to whether he was too old to seek the presidency.[9] By 2019, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, CNN, The Atlantic, the Associated Press, and Slate all published articles on Biden's age and fitness for office.[10] That year, in advance of the 2020 United States presidential election, many of his Democratic opponents used his age against Biden, who was 76 at the time. Biden supporters criticized this as ageist discrimination.[11] According to ABC News, Vladimir Putin and the Russian government spread disinformation about Biden's mental health during the 2020 presidential election,[12] and the Department of Homeland Security withheld publication of a bulletin warning law enforcement agencies about this campaign.[13] During and prior to his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden was followed by rumors that he had undergone plastic surgery to appear younger. Olivia Nuzzi reported in 2019 that Biden's alleged cosmetic procedures were "a minor obsession" of the Trump White House.[14]

Presidency

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Donald Trump has claimed that Biden has dementia, calling him "Sleepy Joe" at rallies.[15] This angle has remained popular among right-wing media outlets.[16][17][18] On a couple of occasions during the 2020 campaign Biden called himself a "bridge candidate", leading some to believe he would not seek a second term.[19] The Biden administration has routinely aimed to make light of the president's age by poking fun and joking about it. This approach has been met with both praise and mockery.[20][21][2] The Biden administration has also been criticized for allegedly gaslighting or harassing journalists who asked questions about Biden's health or age.[22]

Biden on his 81st birthday

On his 81st birthday, Biden posted an image of a birthday cake with dozens of candles, jokingly captioned to be for his "146th birthday". The photo brought to the surface concerns among the public about Biden's age according to a majority of those polled at the time.[23][24]

In 2022, a New York Times–Siena College poll found that 61% of Democratic voters wanted someone other than Biden to be the presidential nominee, citing his age as the main concern. Biden's aides dismissed age-related concerns as politically motivated attacks by Republicans.[25] James Carville,[26] Ezra Klein,[27] and The Economist called for Biden to not run again as early as 2022.[28] On July 28, 2022, U.S. Representative Dean Phillips became the first incumbent Democratic member of Congress to say President Biden should not run for re-election and called for "generational change," pointing to Biden's age.[29] In a July 2023 television appearance, U.S. Representative Greg Murphy, who is also a medical doctor, accused Biden of having undergone extensive plastic surgery to appear younger.[30] According to Biden's 2024 annual physical examination, he is in good health for a man of his age. Biden is on medication for non-valvular atrial fibrillation (a form of irregular heartbeat), has an obstructive sleep apnea which he receives treatments through positive airway pressure, has a sensory peripheral neuropathy, and has a stiff gait due to spinal arthritis and the aftereffects of injury.[citation needed]

Polls showing growing concern about Biden's age[31]

According to a February 2024 poll, Biden's age and health were major or moderate concerns for 86% of voters generally,[32] up from 76% earlier in 2020.[33] According to another 2024 poll, most of those who voted for Biden in 2020 say they believe he is too old to be an effective president; The New York Times noted that these concerns "cut across generations, gender, race and education".[34] The Wall Street Journal has reported 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.[35] Democrats 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.

Democratic presidential primaries

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On October 27, 2023, Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips formally launched his presidential campaign for the Democratic nomination. Phillips argued during his campaign that president Biden would be a weak general election candidate due to his age and low approval ratings.[36] On January 20, 2024, Phillips told Axios that he thought it would be "impossible" for Biden to do the job for four more years, and that "At that stage of life, it is impossible ultimately to conduct, to prosecute the office of the American presidency in the way that this country in the world needs right now. That is an absolute truth."[37]

Longevity

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In January 2024, Dr. Jay Olshansky gave Biden a close to 75% chance of living through a second term based on publicly available information about his health. This is about a 10% better survival chance when compared to other men his age.[38][39]

February 2024

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Upon concluding the investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents, special counsel Robert Hur suggested that Biden would be able to present himself to a jury as an "elderly man with poor memory" and wrote that his memory "appeared to have significant limitations".[40] White House lawyers disputed this characterization,[33] and Biden rejected the claim in a televised press conference on the day the special counsel's report was released; during the conference, he referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as President of Mexico.[41]

June–July 2024

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June 2024 debate

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Further information: Joe Biden–Donald Trump 2024 presidential debate

On June 27, 2024, Biden took part in the first presidential debate. The debate reinforced concerns about Biden's age, with Biden appearing confused and disoriented during its first half, giving meandering answers to questions, particularly on health policy.[42] The New York Times reporter Reid Epstein wondered whether voters would see him as someone physically able to run the country, even if they preferred his policies to Trump's.[43] Some Democrats were unsure whether he should continue his campaign.[44][45] Many officials and foreign leaders who encountered Biden in the months to year preceding the debate noticed he was increasingly frail, tired, meandering, and less lucid in his speech. In many parts of Europe, this led to concern about a second Trump presidency.[46] Biden declined to undergo a cognitive exam such as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, saying that he has "a cognitive test every single day" in performing his presidential duties.[47] It later emerged that a neurologist specializing in Parkinson's disease had met this year with Physician to the President Kevin O'Connor; O'Connor and the White House both said Biden was not being treated for the disease and that other officials use O'Connor as their physician.[48][49][50]

COVID-19 diagnosis

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On July 17, 2024, Biden tested positive for COVID-19. He experienced mild symptoms, including a cough, runny nose, and "general malaise".[51] Images of him looking frail exiting from Air Force One on the way to isolation fuelled further speculation on Biden's health.[52]

Withdrawal from 2024 presidential campaign

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This section is an excerpt from Withdrawal of Joe Biden from the 2024 United States presidential election.[edit]
Biden speaking about his earlier decision to withdraw his candidacy in an Oval Office address, July 24, 2024

On July 21, 2024, Joe Biden, the incumbent president of the United States, announced his withdrawal from the 2024 United States presidential election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement.

Biden, a Democrat, had announced that he would run for re-election in the 2024 presidential election on April 25, 2023, with Harris again as his running mate.[53] Biden had the uncontested support of all major donors in Democratic Party politics and went on to win an overwhelming majority of delegates in the 2024 Democratic Party presidential primaries. He was already considered the presumptive nominee before the primaries were over. However, public concerns about Biden's age and health had emerged during his presidency, particularly about his fitness for the office and ability to carry out a second term.

These concerns increased after the first 2024 presidential debate, between Biden and Republican Party candidate Donald Trump on June 27, 2024. Biden's performance was widely criticized, with commentators noting he frequently lost his train of thought and gave meandering answers, had a faltering appearance, spoke with a hoarse voice, and failed to recall statistics or coherently express his opinion on several occasions.[54] Biden subsequently faced calls to withdraw from the race from fellow Democrats[55] and from the editorial boards of major news outlets.[56][57] By July 19, 2024, more than 30 senior Democrats had called for him to withdraw.[58]

Biden repeatedly insisted for weeks after the debate that he would remain a candidate, despite numerous calls for him to withdraw.[59] However, on July 21, 2024, he withdrew his candidacy via a signed letter posted on his personal Twitter account, writing that this was "in the best interest of my party and the country", while stating that he would continue serving as president until the conclusion of his term.[60] Biden was the first incumbent president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 to withdraw from a reelection race, the first since the 19th century to withdraw after serving only one term,[a] and the only one to withdraw after already winning the primaries.[61][63]

Research on age and leadership

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An article in July 2024 in The Conversation by finance professor Brandon Cline showed that around half of the 1500 largest public companies in the U.S. force their CEOs to retire when they turn 65 or so because of declining performance, with nearly 70% of S&P 500 companies having mandatory retirement ages for their boards in the mid-70s. Cline noted that a similar rule would have made both Trump and Biden ineligible to run in 2024 and argues that the evidence supporting a mandatory retirement age is strong. He cited studies showing that CEOs over 65 hired and fired fewer people, made fewer deals, were less active overall and that age-related changes impair judgment.[64]

See also

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Explanatory notes

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  1. ^ All three incumbents in the 20th century to withdraw or not seek reelection—Calvin Coolidge, Harry S. Truman, and Lyndon B. Johnson—had succeeded to the presidency when their predecessor died, then won a full term in their own right.[61] Three presidents in the 1800s made and kept pledges to serve only one term, most recently Rutherford B. Hayes.[62]

References

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  2. ^ a b Baker, Peter (November 19, 2023). "For an Aging President, a Birthday With a Bite". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 8, 2024. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
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  55. ^ Allen, Jonathan (June 28, 2024). "Some Democrats start calling for Biden to step aside and 'throw in the towel' on 2024". NBC News. Archived from the original on June 28, 2024. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
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  64. ^ Cline, Brandon (July 19, 2024). "Age would prevent Trump and Biden from running many top companies − and for good reason". The Conversation. Retrieved September 9, 2024.
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