OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The so-called “mainstream media” has been extremely deferential and, some would argue friendly, to Democratic President Joe Biden up to this point, but there are indications that some outlets are starting to become more critical.
As the president’s struggles worsen along with his approval ratings, a stunning new report by The New York Times is now putting a new emphasis on an “uncomfortable issue”: His age.
The Times report under a headline that declared that Biden, 79, is “testing the boundaries of age and the presidency,” went on to note that the issue is becoming problematic for White House officials and the Democratic Party writ large.
Fox News reported that the Times story began by “highlighting how his upcoming trip to the Middle East was initially tacked onto his recent trip to Europe with one anonymous official calling it ‘crazy’ if the president had done a 10-day trip overseas,” with “those aides tell the Times there were ‘political and diplomatic’ reasons behind separating the trip into two.”
“But the reality is that managing the schedule of the oldest president in American history presents distinct challenges,” Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker wrote. “And as Mr. Biden insists he plans to run for a second term, his age has increasingly become an uncomfortable issue for him, his team and his party.”
Fox News noted further:
Baker recapped from Biden’s European trip how he needed guidance from another world leader to look at the cameras for a photo-op and how now-outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson answered a question on behalf of the president, who didn’t hear a reporter shouting a question about Ukraine.
“At times, Mr. Biden kept a packed schedule. On the day he flew to Madrid for a NATO summit, he met with multiple leaders and finished with a dinner hosted by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain. On another day, though, he skipped evening festivities with other leaders, and his public schedule finished with a 3:30 p.m. event,” Baker wrote.
“But aides said he was busy and stayed up working late each night of the trip out of view — just as they say they expect him to in the coming week as he hits the road again in Israel and Saudi Arabia,” the report continued.
The correspondent went on to note that the president’s age has become “a sensitive topic in the West Wing,” while going on to point out that Biden is already one year older than the late President Ronald Reagan was when he completed his second term.
Baker also claimed that “more than a dozen current and former senior officials and advisers uniformly reported that Mr. Biden remained intellectually engaged, asking smart questions at meetings, grilling aides on points of dispute, calling them late at night, picking out that weak point on Page 14 of a memo and rewriting speeches like his abortion statement on Friday right up until the last minute.”
But the Times went on to report that the president’s energy level is “not what it was” while adding that some aides “quietly watch out for him.”
“He often shuffles when he walks, and aides worry he will trip on a wire. He stumbles over words during public events, and they hold their breath to see if he makes it to the end without a gaffe,” Baker described.
“Although White House officials insist they make no special accommodations the way Reagan’s team did, privately they try to guard Mr. Biden’s weekends in Delaware as much as possible,” the report continued.
“He is generally a five- or five-and-a-half-day-a-week president, although there are times when he is called at any hour regardless of the day. He stays out of public view at night and has taken part in fewer than half as many news conferences or interviews as recent predecessors,” Baker noted further.
After he cited a poll released last month that showed 64 percent of voters believe that Biden is too old to be president, Baker wrote that the president’s public appearances “fuel that perception.”
“His speeches can be flat and listless. He sometimes loses his train of thought, has trouble summoning names or appears momentarily confused. More than once, he has promoted Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her ‘President Harris,’” Baker wrote.
“Mr. Biden, who overcame a childhood stutter, stumbles over words like ‘kleptocracy.’ He has said Iranian when he meant Ukrainian and several times called Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, ‘John,’ confusing him with the late Republican senator of that name from Virginia,” the Times correspondent added.
