Age will take center stage in first Biden-Trump debate

For Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the two oldest candidates seeking the U.S. presidency, age is an unavoidable electoral issue.

On Thursday, the 81-year-old current Democratic president and the 78-year-old Republican former president will meet in Atlanta, Georgia, for the first of two debates ahead of the November vote, providing Americans with a rare split-screen comparison of their bodies. situation opportunities.

Under the spotlight of high-definition cameras, President Joe Biden and former President Trump, who are nearly tied in national polls, will spar for 90 minutes on issues including the economy, foreign wars, immigration and the future of democracy. A misstep, stumble or verbal misstep could heighten concerns about their advanced age, potentially reshaping an already tense presidential race as voters begin to take notice.

But for Biden, performing well may be more important.

“It’s an undeniable fact that Biden is 81,” said Jim Messina, a Democratic strategist who ran Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign. The ages are basically the same.

“Part of what needs to happen on Thursday night is to start talking about their differences,” Mr. Messina said.

Polls show voters are far more concerned about Biden’s age than his opponent’s. But if Trump wins, he will break Biden’s record as the oldest president before the end of his term.

A New York Times/Siena College poll in March found that 73% of registered voters believed Biden was “too old to be an effective president.” Voters of all ages, including those 65 and older, expressed concerns about the president’s fitness to serve, the survey showed.

Despite the age gap of only three and a half years, only 42% of registered voters have the same opinion of Trump.

“This is supposed to be about the two of them, but Biden looks as old as he does,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

A White House doctor earlier this year declared Biden “fit to perform the duties of his duties,” but concerns about his age have persisted since he took office. In recent years, his signs of aging had become more pronounced, including a softer voice, occasional memory loss and a “stiff gait,” which doctors attributed in part to arthritis.

Sabato said that as president he “came under scrutiny almost every time he appeared in public,” meaning he endured more scrutiny than his challengers.

Films of everyday actions — walking up and down the stairs of Air Force One, walking across stages at public events — have been closely watched online and in conservative media.

When Mr. Biden stumble and fall The fall made national news in June 2023 during the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. After being helped to his feet, he continued to stand and walk normally. His team said he tripped over a sandbag on stage, and the president later told reporters at the White House, “I tripped over a sandbag!”

Some Democrats have publicly and privately expressed reservations about the president’s age, but they rallied around him in February when Justice Department special counsel Robert Hur Investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents unveiled After serving as Vice President.

The report did not recommend that he be prosecuted, but Mr Hull’s description of the president as an “old man with a bad memory” made headlines.

But weeks later, when Biden delivered his annual State of the Union address, experts praised his energetic speech.

“The president always delivers on his promises in big moments,” Congressman Ro Khanna, a Biden campaign surrogate, told NBC News last week. “He did that in the State of the Union. People are going to see that. difference.

The Biden campaign hopes Thursday’s debate will be another moment for the president to prove he can endure the rigors of governing, contrasting sharply with Trump in terms of policies and temperament.

Ahead of the debate, Donald Trump hinted that his opponent might exceed expectations, saying on a June 20 appearance on the All-In podcast that he thought Biden was “going to be somebody.” [who] Will become a valuable debater”.

“I don’t want to underestimate him,” he added. Trump also separately spread unsubstantiated claims that the president would take performance-enhancing drugs to perform well, which the Biden campaign described as a “desperate lie.”

While Trump’s age has been less scrutinized, the former president has faced questions about his own fitness for public office.

At a rally in January, Trump appeared Confusing his Republican primary opponentsNikki Haley spoke for several minutes with former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

He falsely claimed that Ms Haley had been “in charge of security” when Congress was attacked on January 6. Ms Haley, Mr Trump’s former UN ambassador, called for “mental competency tests” for politicians over 75 during her own unsuccessful presidential campaign.

Trump’s personal physician issued a statement in November attesting to his “excellent cognitive examination.”

At a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, Trump complained about a double standard in the media’s treatment of him and Biden.

“If I had said one word, they would have said, ‘He’s cognitively disabled,'” Trump told supporters. “And Biden could hit a wall. He could fall off the stage. He could fall down the stairs. He could fall.”

Both campaigns have used social media to try to shape the narrative around the opposing candidate, amplifying video clips of gaffes, memes and, in some cases, deceptively edited footage.

Recently, Republicans and right-wing media have stepped up their attacks on Biden’s mental competencya series of edited video clips circulated One of the presidents appeared to zone out during the G7 world leaders’ summit in Italy. Unedited footage shows Biden walking to greet paratroopers during a parachute demonstration.

Days later, conservative pundits shared footage online of the president at a Los Angeles fundraiser, standing on the stage and Barack Obama reaching for his arm before they walked off the stage together. Donald Trump and other Republicans claimed this was proof Biden had frozen and had to be removed from the stage. But allies of the president pointed to a longer clip that appeared to show Biden smiling as he accepted applause from the crowd.

The Biden campaign responded quickly on social media, sharing content that appeared to raise questions about Trump’s mental acuity. They posted clips of Trump appearing to walk off the stage early and being ushered in by others including former Vice President Mike Pence and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Yet while some of these videos are easily disproven, voters’ reservations about Biden’s age remain one of his biggest weaknesses.

This is especially true for young voters, Organizers say these individuals have traditionally been more important to Democrats than Republicans in national elections.

Watching the debate could be an “eye-opening experience” for young voters, said Amanda Litman, a Democratic strategist and founder of Run For Something, a group that works to train and support the next generation of Democratic candidates. people.

“I think it’s indicative of a political structure that keeps older generations in power for a long time,” Ms. Litman said of the age of the candidates. “That’s one of the many reasons why young voters, especially, feel disengaged. They don’t feel like they’re represented in leadership.

Brandt Williams, a 23-year-old accountant from Connecticut, said he would support Biden again in 2024. .

“This problem is quite common,” Mr. Williams said. “His age.”

Although Williams plans to participate in Thursday’s debate, he said he hopes he can vote for a “young man, not just for energy, but to represent all Americans, young and old.”

In the key battleground state of Georgia, Democrats told the BBC they sensed apathy among the party’s younger voters, with age a sticking point for many.

Titus Nichols, a 39-year-old attorney active in Cobb County, said: “Biden is caught in a situation where the younger generation wants action… They don’t want to make statements about how we can make this country better. speech.

He added that while the president “is a more mature and stable person, that’s not what people want”.

On Thursday night, millions of people will not only hear the candidates’ ideas and arguments, but judge the nominees’ stamina for themselves.

Ms. Litman, the Democratic strategist, said it was crucial for Mr. Biden to deliver punches if he wanted to quell concerns about his age.

“I think he needs to show competence and confidence,” she said. “There’s still a little bit of fighting left.”