During the first Biden-Trump debate, age will be in the spotlight

For Joe Biden and Donald Trump – the two oldest candidates to run for the US presidency – age is an electoral issue they cannot escape.

On Thursday, the current Democratic president, 81, and his Republican predecessor, 78, will face off in Atlanta, Georgia, for the first of two debates leading up to the November vote, giving Americans a rare split-screen comparison of the physical state of the two men. and mental strength.

For 90 minutes, under the glare of high-definition cameras, President Biden and former President Trump – who remain nearly tied in national opinion polls – will face off on issues ranging from the economy to wars foreign to immigration and the future of democracy. A mistake, misstep or verbal error could heighten concerns about their advancing age, with the potential to reshape an already tight presidential race as voters begin to pay attention.

But putting in a strong performance could be more critical for Mr. Biden, the nation’s longest-serving president who has been dogged by questions about his stamina and mental health since taking office.

“You can’t hide the fact that Biden is 81, you can’t hide the fact that Trump is basically the same age,” said Jim Messina, a Democratic strategist who managed Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign. is not a competition of age, it is a competition of politics and character.

“Part of what needs to happen Thursday night is just to start the conversation about the differences between them,” Mr. Messina said.

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

A New York Times/Siena College poll from March suggested that 73% of registered voters thought Mr. Biden was “simply too old to be an effective president.” Voters across all age groups expressed concerns about the president’s fitness for office, including those 65 and older, the survey found.

Only 42% of registered voters said the same thing about Trump, despite an age gap of just three and a half years.

“It should be about both, but Biden looks his age,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

Mr Biden was declared “fit for duty” 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 visible in recent years, including a softer voice, occasional memory loss and a “stiff gait” that his doctor attributes in part to arthritis.

As president, he is “covered almost every time he is in public,” meaning he faces more scrutiny than his challenger, Mr. Sabato said.

Videos of routine actions — going up and down the stairs of Air Force One, walking across a stage at public events — are watched closely online and in conservative media.

When Mr. Biden tripped and fell At an Air Force Academy graduation ceremony in June 2023, the fall made national news. 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 sandbaged myself!” »

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 released its investigation into Mr. Biden’s handling of classified documents after his term as vice president.

The report did not recommend prosecuting him, but Mr. Hur’s description of the president as an “elderly man with a poor memory” made headlines.

But when Mr. Biden delivered his annual State of the Union address a few weeks later, experts gave him high marks for his forceful 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 it in the State of the Union. And people will see the difference.

The Biden campaign hopes Thursday’s debate will be another moment where the president demonstrates he can handle the rigors of government, creating a stark contrast to Trump in terms of policy and temperament.

Before the debate, Donald Trump suggested his opponent might exceed expectations, telling the All-In podcast during a June 20 appearance that he assumed Mr. Biden was “going to be someone (who) would be a worthy debater”.

“I don’t want to underestimate him,” he added. Trump separately spread unsubstantiated claims that the president took performance-enhancing drugs to perform, which the Biden campaign called “desperate lies.”

Although the scrutiny over Trump’s age is not as intense, the former president has faced questions about his own fitness for office.

At a rally in January, Trump appeared confuse his Republican rival in the primaryNikki Haley, with former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, for several minutes during her speech.

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

Trump’s personal physician released a statement in November attesting that his “cognitive examinations were exceptional.”

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

“If I say a word lightly, they say, ‘He’s cognitively impaired,'” Trump told his supporters. “Whereas Biden can run into walls. He can fall off the stage. He can fall down the stairs. He falls.”

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

More recently, Republicans and right-wing media have stepped up their attacks on Mr. Biden’s mental skills.circulating a flurry of edited video clips including one of the presidents appearing to lose his way during the G7 summit of world leaders in Italy. The previously unseen footage showed Mr Biden walking to greet paratroopers during a skydiving demonstration.

Days later, conservative critics shared images online of the president at a fundraiser in Los Angeles, standing on stage before Barack Obama extended his arm and they left the stage together. Donald Trump and other Republicans said it was evidence that Mr. Biden froze and had to be led off the stage. But the president’s allies pointed to longer clips that appeared to show Mr. Biden smiling and enjoying the crowd’s applause.

The Biden campaign responded with a rapid response effort on social media, sharing content that also appeared to raise questions about Trump’s mental acuity. They posted clips of Trump appearing to leave the stage before he was supposed to and being redirected by others, including former Vice President Mike Pence and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Yet even if some of these videos are easily refuted, voters’ reservations about Biden’s age remain one of his greatest vulnerabilities.

This is particularly true for young voters, who are traditionally a larger demographic for Democrats than Republicans in national elections, organizers say.

Watching the debate could be an “eye-opening experience” for young voters, said 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 favored an older generation to stay in power for a long period of time,” Ms. Litman said of the age of candidates. “This is one of the many reasons why voters, especially younger ones, feel disengaged. They don’t see themselves reflected in leadership.

Brandt Williams, a 23-year-old accountant from Connecticut, said he would support Mr. Biden again in 2024. He considers Mr. Biden a statesman with a strong grasp on foreign policy and he supports the economic policies of the president.

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

Although he planned to participate in Thursday’s debate, Mr. Williams said he wished he could vote for a “younger person, not only for their vitality, but also to represent all Americans, young and old.”

In the critical battleground of Georgia, where the first debate will take place, Democrats told the BBC they are feeling apathy among their party’s younger voters, with age a sticking point for many.

“Biden is stuck in a position where the younger generation wants action…they don’t want speeches about how we are better as a nation,” said Titus Nichols, a 39-year-old lawyer active in Cobb County. Democratic Party.

Even though the president “is the most mature and stable person, that’s not what people are looking for,” he added.

On Thursday night, millions of people will tune in not only to hear the candidates’ ideas and arguments, but also to judge their stamina for themselves.

For Mr. Biden, delivering a punch is essential if he is to allay fears about his age, according to Ms. Litman, the Democratic strategist.

“I think he needs to show competence and confidence,” she said. “And a little fighting.”