Special counsel Robert Hur’s nearly 400-page report on Joe Biden’s retention of classified documents after leaving the Obama White House is now public. While not a criminal indictment, it is a political one.
Explaining why he would not pursue the case, Hur damningly described Biden as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.” This is all too reminiscent of James Comey’s political indictment of Hillary Clinton, calling her “extremely careless” in using a private email server to discuss sensitive government matters.
In his press conference rebutting the report, an angry Joe Biden described himself as “well-meaning, and I’m an elderly man, and I know what the hell I’m doing.”
Indeed, his accomplishments are far beyond what anyone expected in 2020: getting millions of shots in arms to move the country past COVID-19, passing the largest infrastructure program since Dwight Eisenhower, signing a Chips and Science Act that brings semiconductor production back to the United States, forgiving billions in student debt, providing greater healthcare coverage to military veterans and their families after their exposure to toxic chemicals and more.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who often publicly mocked Biden’s age and mental fitness to serve, privately told allies that he found the president to be “sharp and substantive in their conversations.”
Age has been an issue before in presidential politics.
In 1956, there were doubts about Dwight Eisenhower’s ability to do the job following a severe heart attack and a bout with ileitis that required abdominal surgery.
Ronald Reagan’s age became an issue in 1984 after his incoherent rambling during his first televised debate with Walter Mondale. When asked if Reagan appeared as a doddering elderly man, Tony Coelho, then chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, acerbically responded, “Well, at least he didn’t drool.”
In 2020, Joe Biden and Donald Trump were the oldest candidates ever to run for the presidency. Both are four years older now. But the disparities in covering their respective age issues are mindboggling.
Recently, I appeared on the Catholic channel’s Eternal Word Television Network to discuss the age issue. In the setup to the piece, EWTN’s White House correspondent noted that during his press conference, Biden stopped as he was about to name the church where Beau Biden’s rosary (one he has worn since his son died) came from.
The insinuation was that Biden couldn’t remember. But it was clear to anyone watching that Biden’s emotions got the better of him. Responding to the special counsel’s claim that Biden couldn’t remember the details of Beau’s death, First Lady Jill Biden wrote: “If you’ve experienced a loss like that, you know that you don’t measure it in years — you measure it in grief. May 30th is a day forever etched in our hearts. It shattered me, it shattered our family.”
The troubling aspect of the media’s coverage is how little attention they have paid to Donald Trump’s memory lapses. For example, the former president has repeatedly referred to Barack Obama as his 2024 opponent and confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi.
And his insults have only escalated. At a rally in South Carolina, Trump insinuated that Haley’s husband had deserted her when, in fact, he is a member of the National Guard currently on a year-long deployment to Africa.
Donald Trump’s visible signs of aging, and his return to form by insulting those who dare oppose him, have either been ignored or worse, mischaracterized. A recent New York Times op-ed, for example, described Trump as “heavy set and tall, and he uses his physicality to project strength in front of crowds.” Really? A corpulent, orange-colored, 77-year-old is hardly the picture of health.
More importantly, Trump encouraged Vladimir Putin and his Russian allies to “do whatever the hell they want” to those countries that fail to meet their defense obligations under NATO. Joe Biden called Trump’s statement “dumb,” “shameful,” “dangerous” and “un-American.” Former NATO Supreme Commander Wesley Clark went even further, describing Trump’s message to Putin as “treasonous.”
Trump’s threat is a reprise of Munich 1938 when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain surrendered control of the Sudetenland to Adolf Hitler. One year later World War II erupted in Europe, a conflict that cost 420,000 American lives.
Still, the New York Timesran a headline reading “Which Is Worse: Biden’s Age or Trump’s Handing NATO to Putin?” Seriously?
Trump’s other second-term promises — including creating detention camps for hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants, becoming “a dictator on Day One” and directing House Republicans to oppose border reforms and giving vital military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, endanger both our democracy and our national security.
In 2016, Americans were told not to take Trump literally, but seriously. The reality is that this time voters need to do both.
Unlike 1956 and 1984 when the ages of incumbent presidents were legitimate campaign issues, our democracy was not on the line. Adlai Stevenson and Walter Mondale did not threaten the world order, propose becoming dictators or turn their political parties into organizations that have more in common with the Branch Davidians.
Having a president who rallied and expanded NATO to counter Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and stop his restoration of what Ronald Reagan famously called the “evil empire” — an apt descriptor that everyone should be reminded of in the wake of Alexi Navalny’s death.
And, finally, having an experienced president who has passed significant bipartisan legislation at home that will transform the nation’s infrastructure, strengthen domestic manufacturing, expand healthcare enrollment and reduce prescription drug costs, then, yes, more of that, please.
John Kenneth White is a professor of politics at The Catholic University of America. His forthcoming book is titled “Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism.” He can be reached at johnkennethwhite.com.