Obama administration veterans sounded the alarm on President Joe Biden’s age, 81, acknowledging that it was a major problem and growing in prominence.
In an episode of Pod Save America, former Obama administration figures who worked directly with then-Vice President Biden said he appears to have deteriorated and that his health and mental acuity will pose a serious problem for Democrats in 2024.
“If you watch Joe Biden speak, oftentimes, he sounds frail, and he sounds more frail than he used to, even in 2019 and 2020,” chief Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau said.
“The voice sounds frail, and he shuffles more because of the arthritis in his back,” he continued.
Favreau proposed a risky strategy to combat public concerns over Biden’s mental acuity: getting him out in public more. While it is risky, he argued it would help combat the public perception that Biden is being overwhelmed by world events. Former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett agreed.
“I’m sure that going out there means more missteps … more gaffes that start circulating, but if you don’t view Biden being out there as a net positive, then the argument he shouldn’t be running is right,” Lovett said.
Another former Obama aide who co-hosts Pod Save America, Dan Pfeiffer, echoed a similar sentiment in an interview with Courier. While seemingly dismissing concerns over Biden’s memory, saying he didn’t believe the “partisan” special counsel Robert Hur’s report, Pfeiffer ceded that if Biden can’t assuage concerns over his age, he believes he will lose in 2024.
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“So, in some ways, it’s the crux for his campaign,” Pfeiffer said.
Democrats have gone with various strategies to combat public concerns over Biden’s age, from embracing it as granting him increased wisdom to deflecting the concerns to former President Donald Trump’s age, 77. Biden embraced the latter strategy in a recent appearance on the Late Night with Seth Meyers, even openly questioning Trump’s mental acuity.