The president of the United States, Joe Biden, turned 81 this Monday and celebrated with the traditional pardoning of Thanksgiving turkeys at the White Housewhile his age continues to be a matter of concern among voters ahead of the 2024 elections.
“By the way, today is my birthday… It’s hard to turn 60,” the president said with a laugh at the ceremony. “It’s the 76th anniversary of this event… and I want you to know that I wasn’t at the first one.”
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The Democrat is the oldest president in the history of the United States and, if he wins a second term in next year’s presidential election, he will be 86 years old when he finishes.
Biden, as he did this Monday, has the habit of joking about it and his team He points out that he has an intense and tight schedule that would leave people even much younger than him exhausted. Still, poll after poll shows that the president’s age is the biggest concern of American voters.
This has been reinforced by a series of stumbles, slips and missteps by the president, from losing his balance on the steps of Air Force One to giving answers sometimes considered incoherent during press conferences.
Despite the fact that at 77 years old, former President Donald Trump – whom Biden will probably face next year at the polls – has also had a series of blunders, the concern among voters is not the same.
“It’s not about age. It’s about the president’s experience,” Biden said on Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
The official praised Biden’s “wisdom” and “resistance,” reminding journalists of his grueling secret trip to war-torn kyiv earlier this year.
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Biden will celebrate his birthday as he usually does with his family during his annual visit to the island of Nantucket this week: “With a coconut cake, which is something they do traditionally,” Jean-Pierre added.
Disappointing numbers for Biden
Biden “isn’t doing a lot of things wrong,” but he is fighting to change perceptions about his age, as well as on other issues such as the economy, said David Karol, a professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland.
“He is lucid, but people have that perception,” the expert told AFP.
If he is re-elected next year, Biden will leave office nine years older than Ronald Reagan, who held the recordwhen he left the presidency at the age of 77.
The White House has ignored opinion polls, since the Democrats have had a series of electoral successes recently. But the figures are discouraging for the party.
74% of those surveyed believe that Biden would be too old for a second term, compared to 50% who think that about Trump, according to a recent ABC/Washington Post poll.
A Yahoo/YouGov opinion survey revealed that 54% of Americans say Biden is no longer “competent to do the job of president,” compared to 41% who thought that before the 2020 election.
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Biden’s campaign has dedicated itself to highlighting Trump’s own mistakes before a possible rematch in 2024.
Eager to fight back, Trump published a letter from his doctor on Monday in which He was referring to an evaluation two months ago in which tests showed that his “cognitive tests were exceptional.”
AFP
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