A “friendly, well-intentioned elderly man with a bad memory”: the report from the Department of Justice, which cleared the 46th President of the United States of suspicions of mismanagement of classified documents, was not the good news expected by the presidential camp.
While legally exonerating Joe Biden, the special prosecutor in charge of the investigation scratched the cognitive faculties of the Democratic president. The magistrate describes him in particular as incapable of remembering the dates of his vice-presidency, the countries allied with the United States on the Afghan conflict, and even the date of the death of his son Beau.
“How the hell dare he?” […] I don’t need anyone to remind me when he’s dead,” Joe Biden responded on Thursday during an impromptu press conference… before confusing the Egyptian president and that of Mexico. “Free and inappropriate criticism of the president,” the White House also denounced on Friday.
“I am the most qualified”
If Joe Biden wants to preside over the country until he is 86, while he presented himself as a “transition” president in 2020, “it is because I am the most qualified” of the Democrats, he said. responded curtly to a journalist on Thursday.
The fact remains: the president’s entourage and the Democratic Party know that the question of Joe Biden’s physical and cognitive abilities is on the minds of all Americans. Nine months before the presidential election, only 29% of respondents find him “mentally sharp” and 24% “energetic”, according to a recent study by Pew Research.
On Thursday, the White House had already had to remind us that Joe Biden’s mistakes “happen to all of us”, following the president got tangled in the previous days between François Mitterrand and Emmanuel Macron, and between Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkel. And the White House also regularly highlights reassuring health reports on Joe Biden’s ability to govern.
But his memory lapses, his hesitations and his bumpy approach fuel the Republicans’ argument, with Donald Trump now leading the race in the polls.
And when the Democratic campaign team bets on the improvement of economic indicators to support the candidacy of the outgoing president, it knows that the debate on age risks parasitizing the political message of a candidate who also avoids meetings and press conferences.
“Open” convention
With the primary having started, the room for maneuver to find an alternative is reduced. “I am the well-intentioned man, aged 55 and with a good memory, who will beat the ill-intentioned man, aged 77 and with a bad memory, next November,” boasted on X Dean Phillips, Minnesota MP and Democratic candidate still alone in the race once morest Joe Biden.
In the event of failure of the outgoing president, the Democratic convention scheduled for next August in Chicago (Illinois) might also be “open” or “brokered”: the delegates committed to voting for Joe Biden at the end of the primaries of each State would be freed from their vote to nominate, with the usual “super-delegates” (the party notables) a new candidate. If a withdrawal occurs even later, the Democratic National Committee might also decide who ultimately presents to the voters.
Although he is only three years younger than Joe Biden, Donald Trump has fewer outward signs of old age, but he has also repeatedly confused his rival, Nikki Haley, with the former “speaker” in recent weeks. of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. The candidate in the Republican primary is making it a new campaign argument, and is calling for cognitive tests for those over 75.
Beyond the two outgoing presidents, all institutions are aging. In Congress, one in four elected officials is over 70 years old, a consequence of the absence of limits on the number of mandates and the locking of constituencies and committee positions. And the judicial branch is not spared, with a large proportion of judge positions not subject to an age limit. The nine judges of the Supreme Court, for their part, are elected for life.
