Biden’s age, again under scrutiny

The age of Joe Biden has long been his Achilles heel, but an investigation by a special prosecutor that suggests he can’t even remember when his son died has made it a potent weapon against him in an election year.

Questions about the mental agility of the 81-year-old Democratic president have already made headlines these days, with an episode in which he confused the current president of France, Emmanuel Macron, with the deceased François Mitterrand.

But now the Republicans have pounced on the issue, which also makes it possible to evade the fact that former president Donald Trump, 77 years old and who will probably face Biden in the November presidential elections, also presents some loopholes.

A series of polls have shown that Biden’s age is one of the biggest concerns for American voters. She would be 82 years old at the beginning of an eventual second term and 86 at the end of it.

With a long campaign ahead, the issue will become increasingly hot, said Robert Rowland, professor of Political Communication at the University of Kansas.

“You have to convince people that you have the cognitive abilities and strength“, the academic told AFP.

“My memory is good”

In his report, special counsel Robert Hur considered that Biden should not face criminal charges for having withheld classified documents, but his comments about the president’s memory loss, whom he described as “a well-intentioned old man with a bad memory,” could be a big blow to his aspiration to be re-elected.

Own Biden He reacted angrily shortly after, in a speech from the White House.

“I’m well-intentioned, I’m an old man, and I know what I’m doing. “I am president and I will put this country back on its feet.” “My memory is good”, he stated, very angry that the report mentions that he forgot the day of his son Beau’s death. “How the hell dare you?” he said.

Hur insists in the report on the “diminished faculties” by Biden. He said that he could not remember the date he became vice president under Barack Obama (2009-2017) and that, furthermore, he would not be able to remember that his son Beau died in 2015.

“A man too incapable of accountability for the mismanagement of classified information is certainly not suitable for the Oval Office,” said the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, close to Trump.

And playing with a phrase from the report, fellow Republican congressman Kevin Hern wrote: “A ‘well-intentioned old man with a bad memory’ who has access to the nuclear codes….”

“Free”

Biden, a veteran politician who began his career as a senator in 1972 and suffered the tragic death of his wife and daughter in a car accident, carries a history of mistakes and confusion of language.

These episodes have multiplied in recent times and, along with a series of stumbles and falls that have gone viral on social media, have raised questions about his capacity for a second term.

The White House strongly rejected the criticism “inaccurate, gratuitous and inappropriate” by special prosecutor Hur.

But in his statements on Thursday night, Biden was confused again, and called the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al Sisi, president of Mexico.

It’s been a difficult week. On Sunday, he evoked a conversation with his French counterpart Francois Mitterrand – who died almost 30 years ago -, instead of current leader Emmanuel Macron. And on Wednesday he mentioned that he had spoken in 2021 with former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died in 2017.

Biden, who sometimes stutters, also appeared tired while answering questions at the White House on Tuesday after a speech about the crisis on the southern border with Mexico.

“This happens. It happens to all of us“, settled the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre.

In fact, it also happens to who is emerging as his rival in the November elections: Trump.

Recently, the former Republican president confused his rival for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley, with the former speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. But in her case, voters are not worried.