Establishment Media Agonize over Joe Biden’s Age Heading into 2024

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 20: U.S. President Joe Biden pauses while speaking at the start of a
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Wendell Husebø

The establishment media are uneasy about President Joe Biden’s age heading into the presidential election cycle after the November midterm elections.

Citing emotional “angst” over a potential massive Democrat defeat in November, the media are raising “existential questions” about the Democrat party’s future with an elderly Biden at the helm after the midterms.

“President Biden can’t escape questions about his age, a fact of life that’s causing uneasy Democrats to assess whether he can realistically run for reelection in 2024, when he will be 81 years old,” the Hill‘s Amie Parnes and Hanna Trudo wrote Wednesday.

“Conversations that were once whispered in private are spilling out into the public amid angst over a potential drubbing for the party in this fall’s midterm elections and existential questions about its future two years later,” the publication continued:

According to polling, a majority of voters believe Biden is unfit to be president and doubt his mental ability. Fifty-three percent of respondents said they had “doubts” about his mental ability. Sixty-two percent said he is not fit to be president because he is too old:

The Hill is not the only publication worried about Biden’s potential second run. The Atlantic, Axios, New York Times, FiveThirtyEight, and Vanity Fair have all raised concerns about Biden remaining on the ticket come 2024.

Politico is the latest establishment media outlet to issue fears of Biden’s indefinite leadership of the party. Publishing the Thursday title, “The Dem governors who could run in 2024 if Biden doesn’t,” the article tried to promote Democrat governors that are not a part of the presidential conversation, such as embattled Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.

“Let it be said: President Joe Biden has made clear he plans to run again. But the 2024 parlor game has intensified anyway, as Democrats privately raise concerns about his age (soon to be 80), his poll numbers (hovering around half that) and the prospect of a midterm rout in November,” Elena Schneider at Politico wrote.

If Biden did step aside in 2024, it is unknown who would replace him. There seems to be no consensus on who could defeat a prospective second run by former President Donald Trump. The Times has issued a warning about Biden’s “capability to take the fight to former President Donald J. Trump a second time.” Biden reportedly told former President Barack Obama that he feels obligated to run because he is the only Democrat who is capable of defeating Trump.

Public opinion is in Trump’s favor. Multiple polls have consistently shown Trump trouncing Biden in a hypothetical head-to-head rematch.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.

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