
The Real Reason for All the Biden Age Talk
Lopsided dynamics for Republicans, Democrats, and the press.

JOE BIDEN IS OLD. THIS MAY COME as a surprise to you, but itās true. He started his presidency at the age of 78, older than Ronald Reagan was when he left the White House. Now Biden is 81, and if re-elected would start his second term at 82. His age was the subject of heated discussion all weekend thanks to the publication last Thursday of Special Counsel Robert Hurās report on Bidenās inappropriate storage of classified documents after his vice presidency. Hurās announcement clearing Biden of criminal charges included a description of the presidentāāa sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memoryā who didnāt remember what year he left the vice presidency or what year his son Beau diedāthat sparked days of news and opinion articles, cable news panels, and Sunday-show chatter.
The New York Times, for example, put multiple articles about Bidenās age at the top of their homepage the day after Hurās report came out, including news and analysis pieces. They added three more the next day, also at the top of the homepage, along with an editorialānot their first on the subject of Bidenās ageāplus multiple columns and newsletters.
For what itās worth, Iām half Bidenās age and I canāt remember off the top of my head the year of the most important deaths in my life. I can sometimes reason my way toward an answerāfor example, I remember my oldest kid doing a very toddler thing at a funeralābut I donāt just know the year. I also donāt know how much Biden telling prosecutors that he doesnāt remember was actual forgetfulness or standard evasions, like when Donald Trump as president said he ācanāt recallā repeatedly in his written responses to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Still, yes: Biden is old. Heās always had gaffes, heās always worked to hide his stutter, and now heās having overt senior moments. He looks and sounds like an old man, and polls show that his age is votersā biggest concern about him.
But whatās most striking about this discussion is how lopsided it is. It raises concerns about Biden but does not weigh them against concerns about Trump. Elections, after all, are about weighing tradeoffs.
Trump, it turns out, is also old. Heās 77 now, and if elected in November, he would be the oldest president ever by the end of the term. He is louder and higher energy than Biden, which some interpret as comparatively youthful, heās always said nonsensical things, and now heās having overt senior moments.
Itās possible to go through the two menās lapses tit for tat. Biden, defending himself last week against the accusations of befuddlement, compounded the bad press by mentioning Mexico when he was talking about Egypt. A few days earlier, he referred to the leader of France, Emmanuel Macron, as āMitterand,ā the name of the former French president who died in 1996.
But last October, Trump referred to Hungarian President Viktor OrbĆ”n as āthe leader of Turkey.ā He has said heās running against āObamaā multiple times. Last month, Trump confused Nikki Haley with former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, lying that Haley was responsible for the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, an even more ridiculous lie than his lie blaming Pelosi for it.
Biden and Trump are both old, theyāve both clearly lost a step. In this election, age and mental acuity are, at worst, a washāat least as things stand now.
But the two men differ on so much elseācharacter, respect for rule of law, posture toward NATOāthat fixating on their one shared weakness, and even then only focusing on one of them, is odd. Biden, for all his faults, is running to preserve constitutional democracy and Americaās role as the linchpin of global stability. Trump is running to put himself above the law, breaking the republic in the process.
Why Republicans Are Talking About Bidenās Age
Again, the issue is not the discussion of Bidenās age but the disproportionate focus on it. Itās worth speaking clearly about the reasons for this dynamic among Republicans, among Democrats, and in the press.
For Republicans, Bidenās age is just about the only true thing they can attack him on. In early 2023, it looked like the economy would be a liability for the president. But with solid growth, low unemployment, rising wages, and tamed inflation, itās looking strong enough now that Trump is preposterously trying to claim credit for the stock market reaching new highs.
Immigration and the border will be a major Republican line of attack this year. But Biden recently agreed to tougher border security and asylum laws, and congressional Republicans rejected it at the behest of Donald Trump. The political attack relies on lying that Biden wants āopen borders.ā
Meanwhile, attacks on Bidenās son Hunter have fallen flat, because heās not in government, has no apparent influence, and the accusations against him basically amount to Imagine Hunter did what Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump actually did.
Bidenās age, however, offers Republicans a line of attack with a basis in fact, and it plays into votersā existing concerns.
Age talk is a double-edged sword: In emphasizing Bidenās age, Republicans also inherently lower expectations for Biden, including for debates. Typically, campaigns try to lower expectations for their own candidate, setting up post-event spin that they outperformed. With Biden, his opponents insist heās a drooling dementia patient who canāt string a sentence together, then he waltzes over that low bar, as in the 2020 debates.
Why Democrats Are
Itās worth noting that Republicans are not alone in emphasizing Bidenās age. Democrats keep bringing it up, mostly out of fear that a weakened Biden will open the door to a second Trump presidency.
Some elements of the Democratic coalition have always disliked Biden and they now wish heād step aside for a more progressive candidate. Some worry about Bidenās re-electability, and wish heād step aside for a younger candidate. But thereās nothing close to a consensus alternative among Democrats, Vice President Kamala Harrisās net approval is even lower than Bidenās, and heās running, so itās moot anyway.
As a result, Democratsā Biden age discourse is often second- or third-order. Thereās concern about his age among voters, yes, but more expressions of concern about that concern. There isnāt enough, thereās too much, youāre not allowed to say it, you wonāt shut up about it, etc.
For example, the New York Times quotes Obama strategist David Axelrod lamenting that the special counselās comments on Bidenās memory go āto the core of what is plaguing Biden politically.ā Interestingly, the Times article introduces Axelrod as āone of the Democratic Partyās leading figures warning about how voters view Mr. Bidenās age.ā Note the language: not warning that Bidenās age means he might not be up to the job, but warning that voters see it as a negative.
When Axelrod says āitās a problem,ā he means a problem for Biden campaign strategists and communications, not for America per se (except to the extent it makes a Trump victory more likely). And the advice on how to address that problem is for the campaign to recognize that itās a political weakness and work to counter it.
Why Journalists Are
For the media, Bidenās age is good for horserace coverage and āboth sidesā credibility. Biden is in fact old, itās not a matter of opinion. And the evidence that voters care about it makes it a legitimate subject for discussion from a level of remove.
Still, mainstream media organizations, such as the New York Times, place a lot of value on being fair, objective, and politically neutralāwhich in a practical sense often translates to publishing a comparable amount of negative-sounding coverage about Democrats and Republicans. With Biden and Trump differing on basic questions such as āIs the president above the law, like a dictator?āāBiden says no; Trump says yes, at least if itās himāthis forced balance leads to distortions.
To make the levels of negative coverage remotely similar, Bidenās age and mental acuity have to, on their own, balance out many things (including Trumpās age and mental acuity). Think of it this way:
So coverage in the press often inflates Bidenās age as an issue and effectively downplays the importance of Trumpās malfeasance, since thereās so much of it.
If you despise Joe Biden and will never vote for him no matter your opinion of Donald Trump, I wonāt tell you otherwise. If you think Bidenās age is a negative, and that, all else equal, itād be better to have a younger president, I agree. But if you think old and sometimes forgetful is worse than or equal to old, sometimes forgetful, corrupt, bigoted, anti-democracy, criminal, serially lying, and encouraging political violence, or that these things deserve approximately equal attention, thatās nuts.