At 79, Biden is testing the boundaries of age and presidency

WASHINGTON – As President Biden left Tuesday night to four days swinging through the Middle Easthe would probably get more rest than he would have done if he had followed the original plan.

Original trip resolved another journey last month to Europethere should have been an arduous 10-day foreign business trip until Mr. Biden’s team understood that such an extended travel could be unnecessarily taxing for a 79-year-old president, or ” crazy,” as one official put it.

The aides also cited political and diplomatic reasons for reorganizing the side stops as a separate trip the following week. But the reality is that managing the schedule of the oldest president in American history poses distinct challenges. And as Mr. Biden has confirmed he plans to run for a second term, his age has become increasingly an issue for him, his team and his party.

Just a year and a half into his first term, Mr. Biden was more than a year older than Ronald Reagan by the end of his two terms. If he launches another campaign in 2024, Mr Biden will ask the country to elect a leader who will be 86 years old at the end of his term, testing the outer boundaries of age and the presidency. Polls show that many Americans consider Biden too old, and some Democratic strategists don’t think he should run again.

No wonder this is such 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 all reported unanimously that Mr. Biden remained intellectually engaged, questioning Ask smart questions at meetings, consult assistants about points of contention, call them late. at night, pick out that weakness on Page 14 of a memo and rewrite speeches like announced his abortion on friday until the last minute.

But they concede that Mr. Biden looks older just a few years ago, a political responsibility that cannot be addressed by traditional White House ploys like staff changes or new communications plans. His energy levels, while impressive for a man his age, were not, and several aides quietly watched him. He used to walk as he walked, and the aides were worried he would walk on the rope. He tripped over words at public events, and they held their breath to see if he could make it to the end without being ripped off.

Although White House officials insist they don’t have special accommodations the way Reagan’s team did, privately they try to protect Biden’s weekends in Delaware as much as possible. He is usually a president of five or five and a half days a week, although he is called at any hour regardless of day if needed. He does not see the public at night and has attended less than half of press conferences or interviews than his recent predecessors.

When Mr. Biden Falling off the bike Last month, White House officials noted that this was one of the top stories of the week — never mind that the president works five mornings a week, usually with a physical trainer, or more. Men his age hardly ride bicycles anymore.

Mr. Biden himself has said questions about his fitness are reasonable to ask even as he reassures Americans that he is in good shape. Even for some admirers, however, the question is whether that will last another six years.

“It doesn’t feel right to me to seek that office after you’re 80 or 80,” said David Gergen, a top adviser to four presidents. “I just turned 80 and I’ve noticed over the past two or three years that I don’t think it’s wise for me to try to run any organization. You’re not quite as sharp as you used to be. “

Everyone’s age is different, of course, and some experts classify Mr. Biden as the “super-old” people who have remained unusually healthy as they progress through the years.

S. Jay Olshansky, a longevity expert at the University of Illinois Chicago who studied the ages of candidates in 2020. “Currently, there is no evidence that Biden’s age matters an ounce.” policy, they don’t like what he says, that’s fine, they can vote for someone else. But it has nothing to do with how old he is. “

However, Professor Olshansky says it is legitimate to wonder if that will continue at the age of 86. “That’s the correct question to ask,” he said. “You can’t age the pavement. Things get worse as we age, and the risks increase as we age.”

The White House rejected the idea that Mr Biden was not a seven-day commander-in-chief. “President Biden works every day, and because executives can perform their duties from anywhere in the world, they often spend weekends away from the White House,” said Andrew Bates, a deputy press secretary, said after this article. online publishing.

Presidential medical report in November said he had atrial fibrillation but it was stable and asymptomatic. Biden’s “emergency gait is stiffer and less fluid than it was a year ago,” the report said, and that gastroesophageal reflux caused him to cough and clear his throat, symptoms ” certainly seems more frequent and more pronounced. “

But overall, Dr. Kevin C. O’Connor, physician to the president, pronounce him “A 78-year-old man is healthy, strong and healthy enough to perform well the duties of the president.”

Questions about Mr. Biden’s fitness have nonetheless affected his public standing. In a June survey of the Harvard Center for American Political Studies and the Harris Poll, 64 percent of voters believe he has shown that he is too old to be president, including 60 percent of those polled. asked 65 years and older.

Mr. Biden’s public appearances have fueled that perception. His speeches can be flat and listless. He sometimes loses focus, has trouble calling names, or appears momentarily confused. Several times, he promoted Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her “President Harris.” Mr. Biden, who overcame a childhood stutter, stumbled across words like “kleptocracy”. He has speak Iranian when he wants to speak Ukrainian and repeatedly referred to Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat as “John”, confusing him with the late Republican senator of the same name from Virginia.

Republicans and conservative media have gleefully highlighted such moments, posting viral videos, sometimes exaggerating or distorting to make Mr. Biden look even worse. But the White House had to retract some of his promotional comments, such as when he vows to respond militarily if China attacks Taiwan or declare that President Vladimir V. Putin “Can’t Maintain Power” in Russia.

Mr. Biden was famous prone to gaffes even as a young man, and aides point to his marathon meetings with the families of mass shooting victims or his work on the wire during a trip to Cleveland on last week as proof of tolerance.

Mike Donilon, a senior adviser who started working for Mr Biden about 40 years ago, said he has not seen any change. “On his way back from long trips when employees are wiped out, he’ll want to spend four hours planning how we’re going to start implementing domestic policy, when all what younger employees want to do is sleep.

Mr. Biden is not the first president to face the question of age. This issue has been raised several times under President Donald J. Trump, who is 4 years younger. Mr. Trump’s declining vocabulary, his tendency to roundabout, his sometimes incoherent remarks, light work schedule and difficulty processing information led critics to conclude that he is on the decline.

By far, the oldest president is Reagan. When a poor argumentative performance in 1984 threatened his re-election briefly, he rebounded at the next meeting by joking that he would not exploit “The youth and inexperience of the opponent.”

Biographer Lou Cannon said: “Reagan understood the issue, intuitively, and he thought it through. “And he said to me, ‘Age is going to be an issue if I act old and it won’t be if I don’t.'”

In the last years of Reagan’s life, a new group of aides secretly assessed whether he might have to be removed from office under the 25th Amendment’s disability provision, but ultimately concluded that he was still fit. fit. (Five years after leaving the White House, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.)

However, aides tried to limit his schedule, which was closely monitored by First Lady Nancy Reagan. “It was one of the first lessons we had, to not be overdue,” recalls Tom Griscom, one of those assistants. They also shouldn’t send out too many nighttime briefing papers. “After a few weeks,” he said, “a text back from Mrs. Reagan asked us not to send too much in the evening because he would read it all,” staying up late.

Mr. Biden’s advisers say he is against such management and pushes in another direction. “He’s always pushing for additions to his schedule, whether it’s new CEO calls or board meetings,” said Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, VP of staff overseeing his calendar. night with members.

But the assistants were very cautious about exposing him to the coronavirus. Assistants are tested once a week and wear colored bracelets on the day of the test; if they plan to attend a meeting with the president on another day, they must also check in that morning and wear an N95 mask.

The White House appears to be equally adamant in protecting Mr. Biden from unregulated interactions with the media. He’s held just 16 press conferences since taking office, less than half as many as Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush during this period and less than a third less than Bill Clinton and George HW Bush, according to a report. Martha Joynt Kumar, a longtime scholar of presidential communications strategy.

Likewise, Mr. Biden gave only 38 interviews, far fewer than Mr. Trump (116), Mr. Obama (198), young Mr. Bush (71), Mr. Clinton (75) and the older Mr. Bush. ( eighty six). Mr. Biden is more approachable when it comes to answering some informal questions after a speech or other event, which he has done 290 times, compared with Mr. Trump’s 213 and Mr. Obama’s 64.

During his European tour last month, foreign leaders followed his lead while treating him protectively like a respected elderly relative. At a photo opportunity, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz gently pointed Biden in the direction of the camera. Just before a meeting, a reporter twice shouted questions about getting grain out of Ukraine. When Mr. Biden could not hear the question, Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, came to his rescue. “We’re working on it,” Mr Johnson replied.

At times, Mr. Biden keeps a tight schedule. On the day he flew to Madrid for a NATO summit, he met with many leaders and ended with a dinner hosted by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain. On another day, however, he skipped evening festivities with other leaders and his public schedule ended with a 3:30 p.m. event.

However, aides said he was busy and stayed up late working every night of the trip to stay out of sight – just as they said they expected him to do so next week when he hit the road. back to Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Jim Tankersley, Michael D. Shear and Katie Benner contribution report.