For Joe Biden and Donald Trump — the two oldest candidates running for president of the United States — age is an electoral issue that neither of them will be able to escape
This Thursday (27/6), the current Democratic president, aged 81, and his Republican predecessor, aged 78, will face each other in Atlanta, in the state of Georgia, in the first of two debates before the November election.
For 90 minutes, under the spotlight of high-definition cameras, Biden and Trump — who remain practically tied in voting intention polls — will discuss topics ranging from economic issues to international wars, immigration, and the future of democracy.
Any slip, stumble, or verbal error could reinforce concerns about advancing age and has the potential to reconfigure the already tight presidential race as voters begin to pay attention.
But delivering a strong performance may be more important for Biden, the nation’s oldest president, who has been dogged by questions surrounding his physical fitness and mental capacity since taking office.
“There’s no hiding the fact that Biden is 81, there’s no hiding the fact that Trump is the same age,” says Jim Messina, a Democratic strategist who managed Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign.
“It’s not a dispute of age, it’s a dispute of politics and character.
“Part of what needs to happen on Thursday night is simply to start the conversation about the differences between them,” he adds.
Polls show that voters are much more concerned about Biden’s age than his opponent’s. But if Trump wins, he will beat Biden’s record as the oldest president before the end of his term.
A March New York Times/Siena College poll suggested that 73% of registered voters believed Biden was “too old to be an effective president.”
Voters of all age groups expressed concern about the president’s fitness for office, including those aged 65 and over, according to the survey.
Only 42% of registered voters said the same about Trump, despite the age difference between the two being just three and a half years.
“It should be in relation to both of them, but Biden looks his age,” says Larry Sabato, director of the Politics Center at the University of Virginia, in the USA.
Biden was declared “fit to perform his duties” earlier this year by a White House doctor, but concerns about his age have persisted since he took office.
Signs of his aging have become more evident in recent years, including his softer voice, occasional memory lapses, and “stiff gait,” which his doctor partially attributes to arthritis.
As president, he is “followed by the press almost every time he is in public,” which means he faces more scrutiny than his opponent, Sabato notes.
Videos of routine actions — such as going up and down the stairs of the presidential plane Air Force One and crossing a stage at public events — are closely watched by viewers in online and traditional media.
When Biden tripped and fell during an Air Force Academy graduation ceremony in June 2023, the fall made national news. After receiving help to get up, he stood and continued to walk normally. His team said he tripped over a sandbag on stage.
Some Democrats have publicly and privately expressed reservations about the president’s age but came together to support him in February when Justice Department special counsel Robert Hur released the results of his investigation into the handling of classified documents by Biden after his term as vice president.
The report did not recommend prosecuting him, but Hur’s description of the president as an “elderly man with a poor memory” made newspaper headlines.
However, when Biden delivered his State of the Union address — the head of state’s annual message to Congress — a few weeks later, analysts praised him for his powerfully delivered speech.
“The president always provides great moments,” Representative Ro Khanna, a representative of the Biden campaign, told the American network NBC News last week.
“He did it at the State of the Union. And people will notice the difference.”
Biden’s campaign hopes that Thursday’s debate will be another moment in which the president demonstrates that he is capable of facing the rigors of governing, drawing a strong contrast with Trump in terms of policy and temperament.
On the eve of the debate, Trump suggested that his opponent could exceed expectations, telling the All-In podcast on June 20 that he believed Biden “would be someone [who] would be a worthy debater.”
“I don’t want to underestimate him,” he added.
In parallel, Trump has spread unsubstantiated claims that the president will take performance-enhancing drugs to perform well in the debate, which Biden’s campaign described as “desperate lies.”
While scrutiny surrounding Trump’s age is not as intense, the former president faces questions about his fitness for office.
At a rally in January, Trump appeared to confuse his Republican primary rival, Nikki Haley, with former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for several minutes during his speech.
He claimed, incorrectly, that Haley was “responsible for security” at the time of the Jan. 6 attack on Congress. Haley, a former US ambassador to the UN under Trump, called for “cognitive ability tests” for politicians over the age of 75 during her failed presidential campaign.
Trump’s doctor stated in November attesting that his “cognitive exams were exceptional.”
At a rally last Saturday in Pennsylvania, Trump complained about the supposed difference in the media’s treatment of him and Biden.
“If I say one even slightly wrong word, they’re going to say, ‘He has cognitive decline,'” Trump told his supporters.
“Whereas Biden can hit walls. He can fall off the stage. He can fall down the stairs. He comes out on top.”
Both campaigns attempt to shape the narrative around the opposing candidate through social media, using video snippets of verbal gaffes, memes, and, in some cases, deceptively edited images.
More recently, Republicans and right-wing media have intensified attacks on Biden’s mental capacity, releasing a barrage of edited videos, including one of the president appearing to wander during the summit of the G7, a group of seven of the world’s richest countries, in Italy. The unedited footage showed Biden walking to greet skydivers during a skydiving demonstration.
Days later, conservative critics shared videos of the president at a fundraiser in Los Angeles, in which he appears standing on stage until Barack Obama takes his arm, and they leave together. Trump and other Republicans claimed it was proof that Biden had “stuck” and needed to be led off the stage. However, the president’s allies presented longer videos that appeared to show Biden smiling and receiving applause from the audience.
Biden’s campaign responded quickly on social media, sharing content that appears to raise similar questions about Trump’s mental capacity. They posted videos of Trump appearing to leave the stage earlier than expected and being redirected by others, including former Vice President Mike Pence and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Young voters do not see themselves represented
But even if some of these videos are easily refuted, voters’ reservations about Biden’s age remain one of his biggest vulnerabilities.
This is particularly true of younger voters, who have traditionally been a more important demographic for Democrats than Republicans in national elections.
Watching the debate can be an “eye-opening experience” for younger voters, says Amanda Litman, a Democratic strategist and founder of Run For Something, an organization that trains and supports the next generation of Democratic candidates.
“I think it’s indicative of a political structure that has privileged an older generation to remain in power for a long time,” says Litman about the age of the candidates.
“It’s one of the many reasons why, especially younger voters, they feel disconnected. They don’t see themselves reflected in leadership.”
Brandt Williams, a 23-year-old accountant from Connecticut, said he will support Biden again in 2024. He sees the president as a statesman who has a strong grip on foreign policy and supports the Democrat’s economic policies.
“The only issue is quite common,” adds Williams.
“His age.”
Although he plans to watch Thursday’s debate, Williams said he would like to be able to vote for a “younger person, not just for vitality, but to represent all Americans, both young and old.”
In the potentially decisive state of Georgia, where the first debate will take place, Democrats told the BBC they feel apathy among the party’s young voters, with age a point of contention for many.
“Biden is in a position where the younger generation wants action… they don’t want a speech about how we are better as a nation,” says Titus Nichols, a 39-year-old Democratic lawyer in Cobb County, Georgia.
Although the president “is a more mature and stable person, that’s not what voters are looking for,” he adds.
On Thursday night, millions of people will tune in not only to hear the candidates’ ideas and arguments but also to judge their strengths for themselves.
For Biden, striking is key if he wants to quell fears about his age, according to Litman, the Democratic strategist.
“I think he needs to show competence and confidence,” she says.
“And a little bit of clash.”
