Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
“President Joe Biden tripped and fell after handing out the last diploma at a graduation ceremony at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado [last] Thursday… The 80-year-old U.S. president fell forward, caught himself with his hands, then got up on one knee while helped by three people. He walked back to his seat unassisted.” Reuters
The right argues that Biden is too old to be president.
“Gerald Ford slipped down the stairs of Air Force One. George W. Bush lurched off a Segway scooter. Barack Obama tripped getting on stage for a 2012 campaign event. But when the Commander-in-Chief is vigorous and relatively young, Americans can afford to laugh… Americans can be thankful Mr. Biden wasn’t hurt this week. Would he get up so quickly if he fell in 2025?…
“Democrats seem to have convinced themselves that they have no choice other than to rally around Mr. Biden, since he has decided to seek a second term. But they may be taking a bigger risk than they think, and the voters may have a different judgment about his capacity to face Chinese President Xi Jinping and other hard men into the back end of his 80s.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“How old is our president, who will turn 82 shortly after Election Day 2024 and wants to keep the job until he’s 86? One of Queen Victoria’s children was still alive when he was born. He was a teenager when the last veteran of the Civil War died. He served alongside six men in the Senate who were born before 1900. He spent 31 years as a colleague of a man who ran for president against Harry Truman. Biden was elected to the Senate during the Vietnam War, when Richard Nixon was president, Gerald Ford was still a congressman and a gallon of gas was 36 cents…
“Nikki Haley, who is running to replace Biden, is two years younger than Biden’s second son, Hunter. Ron DeSantis is eight years younger and was born the year Biden was elected to his second Senate term…
“Democrats fret among themselves about this, and they should. Polls regularly show a majority of voters think Biden is no longer mentally up to the job. A majority of his own party’s voters don’t want him running for re-election, but he’s shuffling after another term anyway. The voters are right to worry.”
Dan McLaughlin, New York Post
“It is fair to point out that Biden didn’t collapse because of deteriorating health, but because he tripped over a sandbag that had been left onstage. In theory, it was the type of fall that could have happened to anybody. But, as commentator Guy Benson noted on Fox, ‘Not everybody is president, and not everybody is 80.’…
“As anybody who is older or has an elderly relative can testify to, even a minor fall at that age carries a significant long-term risk. And health risks can have significant consequences when the person in question has a job as demanding as the presidency. Biden was lucky this time, as he has been with a few prior stumbles, but it may not always be the case… A Biden second term would represent a risk that American voters should not be asked to take.”
The Editors, National Review
The left argues that the fall is not indicative of Biden’s ability to serve as president.
The left argues that the fall is not indicative of Biden’s ability to serve as president.
“The complicated reality of America’s oldest president was encapsulated on Thursday as Congress approved a bipartisan deal he brokered to avoid a national default. Even Speaker Kevin McCarthy testified that Mr. Biden had been ‘very professional, very smart, very tough’ during their talks. Yet just before the voting got underway, Mr. Biden tripped over a sandbag…
“The two Joe Bidens coexist in the same octogenarian president: Sharp and wise at critical moments, the product of decades of seasoning, able to rise to the occasion even in the dead of night to confront a dangerous world. Yet a little slower, a little softer, a little harder of hearing, a little more tentative in his walk, a little more prone to occasional lapses of memory in ways that feel familiar to anyone who has reached their ninth decade or has a parent who has.”
Peter Baker, Michael D. Shear, Katie Rogers, and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, New York Times
“Biden tripped, in a minor accident that could have befallen any one of us. The concern (or feigned concern) over it also only reveals what we already know: that the president, as well as the leading presidential contender from the Republican party, are both elderly men, and that comes with risks, broken bones from falls among them. And it is true that falls among the elderly can cause serious injuries, which can lead to swift decline. But Biden was fine…
“With the leading 2024 contenders both well into their golden years, it’s reasonable to ask if they’re cognitively and physically up to the task. Being president is taxing on all levels, and Americans are justified in wanting to elect a leader who is cognitively sharp and possesses the physical stamina to endure a punishing travel schedule and long days that often involve too little sleep. Tripping over a sandbag and then righting oneself, though, offers no insight into Biden’s physical or cognitive health.”
Jill Filipovic, The Guardian
“It is fair to ask what is a bigger story—a momentary incident when someone left a sandbag in the president’s path or is it the fact that Biden surefootedly handled a debt crisis that had the entire world on edge?… The real issue, to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, not whether Biden is too old, but that time and time again his opponents appear too callow and inexperienced to keep up with him…
“What those who have observed Joe Biden and his performance as president will recognize is, that his opponents should beware, every time they find something to titter about, he is growing, getting stronger, and preparing to outsmart, outwork, outcompassion, and outlead them yet again.”
David Rothkopf, Daily Beast
