Jennifer Jacobs | Bloomberg News (TNS)
WASHINGTON — One week after questions boiled over about Joe Biden’s age and acuity, the president’s near-total hold on the levers of power within the Democratic Party has never been more apparent.
Interviews with donors, strategists and lawmakers found only a few were shaken by a special counsel report that cast Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory,” and his subsequent news conference in which he mixed up the leaders of Mexico and Egypt. One Democrat, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, likened it to a slow-motion train wreck.
But Democrats say they remain committed to Biden’s candidacy, despite the turmoil of the past seven days.
Their determination was only bolstered by Donald Trump, who pushed the president’s woes from the front pages with another high-profile controversy. The Republican frontrunner’s pronouncement that he would encourage Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies who don’t spend enough on their militaries rattled world leaders and put Biden back on offense.
The episode immediately validated Democrats’ argument for a second Biden term: The president might be old and sometimes forgetful, but his likely opponent is a chaotic figure who threatens American democracy and the global order.
None of that changes the reality that age remains Biden’s greatest liability in the November election. He is already the oldest president in U.S. history, and would be 86 at the end of a second term. Each successive misstep risks turning off voters, particularly those tuned out of politics, that Biden’s campaign aides say he needs to win over in order to keep Trump out of office.
One Democratic fundraiser on Wall Street, who requested anonymity to discuss the situation, likened Biden’s age to rain on a friend’s wedding day: Even if it is less than ideal, his supporters will show up for the sake of the relationship.
Trump is only four years younger than Biden, but special counsel Robert Hur’s description of the president delivered a painful blow.
Three quarters of voters – including half of Democrats – say they’re concerned about Biden’s age, versus just 61% who say the same about Trump’s multiple felony charges, according to an NBC News poll released last week.
Progressives and moderates alike signaled support for the president, as did state and local officials across swing states.
“I think all of the other things that are going on out there, losing our democracy possibly and those kinds of things, are going to offset anything like that,” said Michael Engelberger, the supervisor of Dane County in Wisconsin.
In Erie County, a crucial Pennsylvania swing district, former Democratic Party chairman Jim Wertz acknowledged that Trump comes across as “loud and boisterous” compared to the more “reserved” Biden, though he said people still see the president as “pretty active.”
“That also plays into the narrative of how how age affects his candidacy,” said Wentz.
Some strategists and former Biden advisers in Washington concede their party is making a high-stakes bet to back Biden against Trump considering how much voters are worried about his age.
One Wall Street contributor acknowledged the age issue was Democrats’ biggest challenge in 2024, but they said the race would ultimately transform into a referendum on Trump — whose thirst for the spotlight can remind the public of his destabilizing presidency.
“This is a Le Diplomate, cable studio, donor class-induced drama,” said Matt Paul, an adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign who now leads Cornerstone Public Affairs, referencing a buzzy Washington restaurant well-liked by the political class. “Most American voters will not dial into this until June.”
Democratic officials who have made little secret of their future White House ambitions also rallied around Biden, rather than angle to replace him. Going against the president would almost surely result in a massive backlash from party brass, since it would risk weakening Biden and strengthening Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris called the Hur report “inappropriate” and “troubling,” while Illinois Governor JB Pritzker described Biden as “on the ball.”
Still, worries about the state of the race are pervasive in Washington and across influential media channels. Comedian Jon Stewart, returning to Comedy Central’s The Daily Show on Monday after a nearly nine-year hiatus, described Biden and Trump both as “stretching the limits of being able to handle the toughest job in the world.”
A former Biden official said Biden’s campaign needed to do a better job seizing media attention. Biden’s team turned down an interview ahead of the Super Bowl – which drew a record 123.4 million viewers – though it launched a new account on the social media website TikTok during the game.
Biden himself seemed to take one piece of consistent donor advice: using humor to defuse the situation. At a meeting with county-level officials on Monday, he quipped he had “been around awhile – I do remember that.”
(Bloomberg reporters Nancy Cook, Bill Allison, Amanda Gordon, Mark Niquette, John Harney, Kathleen Hunter and Skylar Woodhouse contributed to this story.)
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