Even a jury of President Biden’s colleagues cannot determine.
The 80-year-olds are divided over the commander-in-chief’s decision to run for a second term. Some accuse the 80-year-old’s opponents of “aging” – while others admitted they were “undecided” if he was as much as the duty.
A compilation of short interviews with older Americans was released by the BBC On Tuesday, hours after Biden officially announced he can be looking for re-election in 2024.
Biden, who turned 80 on November 20 last yr, is the oldest person to function president. Although doctors say the chief executive “is fit for duty,” a series of gaffes and slip-ups have prompted critics to demand that he resign from the Oval Office – or not less than take a cognitive test to prove he still has it.
One supporter, nevertheless, said she was frustrated by the continued debate over the president’s age.
“This query truthfully irritates me,” said Catharine Stimpson, an 86-year-old feminist and dean emeritus of the Graduate School of Arts and Science at NYU.
“Satiring him and mocking him is ageism,” Stimpson added, speaking in Washington Square Park.
“Some people of their 60s shouldn’t even come near political power,” she joked.
Larry Kerr, 80, also questioned whether a younger candidate would have a positive impact on the country.
“What do they need to do? 21-year-old [president]? Wish to get the Gen Z-era? he sneered.
Despite this, Kerr has admitted that while he’s “pretty smart”, he is just not sure he would find a way to rule the US in his ninth decade.
“I wasn’t brought up as a politician to know methods to do this stuff,” he admitted. “So I’m undecided if I’m being honest with you.”
“[Biden] seems advantageous – alert, smart,” chimed in Jessica Kerr, 78.
One other park regular, 85-year-old David, said age was not essential in comparison with how well Biden “could do his job”.
“Should you do your job well and in case you can unite this country … I believe if his health allows it, then it’s advantageous,” he reasoned.
Nevertheless, in Washington, Gail Lowe said “it might be nice in the event that they took on someone younger [politicians]within the position – by which she meant “middle-aged people”.
“Not very young, but not over eighty.”
If Biden wins a second term in 2024 and serves all 4 years, he’ll leave office on January 20, 2029 – on the age of 86.
After Biden, the oldest presidents by age when leaving the White House were Ronald Reagan, then 77; Donald Trump, then 74; and Dwight D. Eisenhower, then 70.
But as he prepares for the 2024 election cycle, Biden is under fire after remarks he made concerning the senior candidate greater than 50 years ago.
“He’s lost that old twinkle in his eye that he had,” Biden, then a 29-year-old first-time Senate candidate, told the Delaware Evening Journal about his opponent, Cale Boggs, 63.
Biden ultimately stripped the incumbent of the Republican after spending most of his campaign smearing him as “dear old dad” who’s ignorant of contemporary American life.