The age issue for presidential candidates has been going on for more than four decades. President Ronald Reagan responded with a promise to resign if he became incapacitated and, later, with a clever joke that reset his campaign from a shaky debate performance to a landslide victory in 49 states and a second term.
“I will not make age an issue in this campaign,” Reagan said to the question he knew was coming, in perhaps the most famous mic drop moment in campaign history. “I will not exploit my opponent’s youth and inexperience for political purposes.”
The audience roared, even Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale laughed – and Reagan’s re-election was back on track.
Today, 81-year-old Democratic President Joe Biden is fighting for such a redemptive moment after a disastrous debate performance against 78-year-old Republican former President Donald Trump. Those 90 minutes last week set off alarm bells among Democrats who had hoped Biden would stop Trump from returning to White. House – and greatest concern among voters long skeptical of how any one of the elderly would govern a complex nation of more than 330 million people for another four years.
More than two dozen people who spent time with the president privately described him as often sharp and focused. But he also has moments, especially at the end of the night, when his thoughts seem jumbled and he stops mid-sentence or appears confused, they said. Sometimes he doesn’t understand the ins and outs of political details. He occasionally forgets people’s names, stares blankly and moves slowly around the room, they said.
Biden has vowed to stay in the race despite signs of waning support on Capitol Hill.
“I’m running… no one is kicking me out,” Biden said in a call Wednesday with officials from his re-election campaign.
But the issue he faces is much more intimate, according to an expert who covered Reagan’s health during his presidency.
“The most important debate of the campaign is the one taking place right now in Joe Biden’s head between the part of his mind that tells him he is the chosen one and the more self-conscious part,” said Rich Jaroslavsky of the University of California at Berkeley. formerly of the Wall Street Journal.
Ultimately, the question – how old is too old to be president? – it’s about competence. And Americans have never had more personal experience with the effects of aging than they do today.
A wave of retirement baby boomers it means millions more Americans know when they see someone declining. For many, this widespread experience has made Biden’s halting performance during Thursday’s debate a family reality check.
Trump seemed more vigorous, although he lied or distorted a long list of facts. When he challenged Biden to a cognitive test, Trump got the doctor’s name wrong who had administered his. For now, he’s relinquishing the spotlight.
“Is this an episode or is it a condition?” Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., 84, asked herself on MSNBC, reflecting the question dominating Democratic circles this week. “It’s legitimate – from both candidates.”
Reagan faced the same issues even before he was elected the oldest president yet. In 1980, at age 69, he promised to resign if he experienced severe cognitive decline while in office.
“If I were president and I had any feeling that my capabilities were diminished before the start of a second term, I would walk away,” he told the New York Times on June 10, 1980. “In the same way, I would walk away.” also.”
This did not happened. Reagan served two full terms, leaving office in 1989. He announced in 1994 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s illness. He died in 2004.
Neither Trump nor Biden have made a similar pledge, and their campaigns did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
For Reagan, the age issue disappeared in his first term, as any health concerns centered on his recovery from a near-fatal assassination attempt in 1981. He appeared headed for easy re-election. And the debates seemed like natural settings for the soft-spoken former Hollywood actor. But his performance in the first clash with Mondale in the 1984 campaign brought the age issue back.
The president, then 73, rambled and hesitated. He seemed to lose his train of thought at times and seemed tired at others. No one had seen him act publicly like this, recalled Jaroslovsky, co-author of a story titled, “New Race Question: Is America’s Oldest President Now Showing His Age?”
Reagan’s age – indeed, his fitness for a second term – was now an indelible part of the 1984 race, a striking parallel to what is happening in 2024 in the wake of Biden’s shaky debate performance. But there are important differences.
Reagan led in the first debate, while Biden and Trump were practically tied. On stage, “Biden was terrible from the start,” said Jaroslovsky, founder of the Online News Association.
Then, as now, Jaroslovsky said, the president’s combative supporters provided a vigorous turnaround.
Reagan’s operation said he was tired. There was criticism about the team over-preparing him, Jaroslovsky said. Biden’s team cited fatigue from two overseas trips that exhausted even the youngest staffers. It was a bad night, they said. The blame fell on the president’s advisors. Democrats on Capitol Hill complained that Biden’s performance hurt his chances at the polls. And press critics said that reporters failed to hold the president and his team accountable.
Until Tuesday, pressure was mounting on Biden give up the race and open a difficult process for Democrats to nominate someone else. The crisis had repercussions on the Democratic Party just over six weeks before its convention in Chicago. It is unclear whether Biden and Trump will debate a second time.
Reagan’s 1984 moment came during the second debate, at 33 minutes, when Henry Trewhitt of The (Baltimore) Sun said, “You’re already the oldest president in history, and some of your staffers say you were tired.” after their most recent encounter. with Mr. Mondale.” Here, Reagan straightened his feet and suppressed a smile. He was ready.
Trewhitt noted that President John F. Kennedy (the youngest American president-elect) barely slept during the Cuban Missile Crisis: “Do you have any doubt that you would be able to function in such circumstances?”
“No way, Mr. Trewhitt,” Reagan said. He later declared, “I am in charge.”
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This story corrects Trump’s age to 78.
