Who is fit to rule?

On 27^th June, a 77-year-old man and an 81-year-old man will walk into a room. They both experience memory lapses, struggle with mixing up names of individuals, and face other cognitive issues. They have heart issues, and the natural onset of mental faculty decay with age. What will ensue? Apparently, the US Presidential Debate.

 

When Joe Biden,  78, won the 2020 presidential election, he shattered the record for the oldest person to have held office – a record only set in 2020 by Trump, who took office at 70. Now, Biden,  81, is seeking re-election and, if he wins, will be the first octogenarian to hold the office. His main contender, Trump, is 77 (yes, it’s been seven years since he was first elected). Despite all the (likely bogus) health reports published insisting that both men are in “perfect condition”–in Trump’s case claiming to be the “healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”, the question still arises: would you trust your 81-year-old grandpa to run any country?

 

Biden’s mental decay has been an unwelcome spotlight in his campaigns; various (admittedly hilarious) faux pas have raised severe national concern about his cognitive functioning and ability to carry out the tasks of the presidency. Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Hur’s characterisation of Biden says it all: “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man, with a poor memory”.  In February, Biden reported a conversation from 2021 that he had with Angela Merkel as having been with Helmut Kohl. Significantly, Kohl hasn’t been Chancellor of Germany since 1998, nor even alive since 2017. In the same week, he referred to Francois Mitterand, who was in power from 1981 to 1995, as the current French President. Perhaps it’s nostalgia for a time when his mental faculties were at their peak.

 

Special Counsel Hur’s report further stated that during interviews, Biden had failed to remember the dates of his tenure as vice president and, most painfully, couldn’t recall when his beloved son Beau had died. In an emergency press conference that was meant to be a devastating response to the report’s accusations, Biden only confirmed the fears when he referred to Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as the “president of Mexico.” Polls have consistently shown that the majority of Americans are concerned Biden is too old to serve a second term and believe that he has declined cognitively and physically.

 

Independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr,  (a sprightly 70 compared to the other candidates) came out last week with a statement saying, “a parasite had eaten part of his brain”. The parasite was first spotted in his brain in 2012.

 

All three men have gone to extensive lengths to reassure the public about their fitness, physically and mentally, as age becomes a key concern in the lead up to the election; but these reassurances are shaky, and do not seem to be altering public opinion significantly.

 

In 2023, Dr Bruce Aronwald, Trump’s personal physician, writes that the former president’s most recent “comprehensive examination” was 13^th September 2023, and that his “cardiovascular studies are all normal and cancer screening tests” were negative, and that Trump had “reduced his weight.” The letter makes broad statements about Trump’s health but does not include information about the types of tests that Trump took or what the results were. It doesn’t even include  basic information that Trump’s physicians have shared in the past, such as his height and weight, cholesterol level or blood pressure. In 2015, Trump’s campaign released the health report declaring that he would be the “healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” It was later revealed that Trump dictated the letter to the physician himself.

 

In January,  Kennedy documented a  skiing excursion with professional snowboarder and Olympic gold medallist Torah Bright who called him a “ripper” as they raced down the mountain. In June 2023 a camera crew was at his side while he lifted weights, shirtless, at an outdoor gym in Venice Beach. At the start of this year, he challenged Biden and Trump  to a fitness contest, posting a workout video on social media, writing: “Getting in shape for my debates with President Biden!” Notably, in a 2012 deposition for his divorce proceedings, Mr. Kennedy stated that he “has cognitive problems, clearly” citing short and long-term memory loss in arguments that his earning power had been diminished by this decay in cognitive function caused by the aforementioned parasite in his brain.

                                                         

On 28^th February of this year, the White House put out a report regarding Biden’s health “requested by the patient.” It cites anti-coagulation heart medication the President has been on, “normal for a man of his age” and degenerative osteoarthritic changes, for which physical therapy has been prescribed, as well as stating that Biden works out “five times a week”. Obviously released in an effort to mitigate the rising public concerns about his age, the report concludes that “President Biden is a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency.” Notably, the White House has dismissed the idea of Biden taking a cognitive test, saying Dr. O’Connor does not believe it’s “warranted because of just who [Biden] is as president of the United States and everything that he has to deal with.” Aside from the official report, there have been a handful of photo-ops last summer of Biden riding along bike paths in Rehoboth Beach, Del., where he has a beach house.

 

It seems like a replay of the 2020 election; incumbent Trump, 73, against Biden and Bernie Sanders; blur your vision a little and distinguishing these slightly wrinkly, old, snowy-haired men apart becomes harder. The last three US presidents – Obama, Clinton, and Bush – are all currently younger than the three men running. Age limits on candidacy seem an obvious solution, but ageing is not a linear process; all septuagenarians were not created equal. Family histories and pre-existing health conditions play a large role in life expectancy and mental functioning. Thus, uniform judgments limiting the rights of a 73-year-old from running despite perfect physical functioning are dubious. However, quite apart from the health concerns that come with age, though they are significant, are the more fundamental questions of democratic representation. When Biden was born, World War II was still raging; Israel was not a country; India was still a British Colony; Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of the UK; and Velcro hadn’t been invented. There is significant evidence to support the idea that political preference and view formation happen early, in the adolescent and early adult years, and they remain largely stable after that. This implies that Trump, Biden, and Kennedy’s site of preference formation was the political climate of the 60s and early 70s at best – and it shows. Their references are dated, and their concerns are too: Trump frequently refers to “Communists” and “Marxists” in his speeches, echoing an era of bygone fears.

 

Notably, countries that are less free, according to the Freedom House Index, are more likely to have older leaders. When compared to the world average age of leaders, 62, the median age of those classified “not free” is 68, and 60 in those classified as “free”. Biden is amongst the 5% of all leaders who are in their 80s, and one of three “free” countries with leaders over 80 (the others two being Ghana and Namibia).

 

Source: Pew Research Center, Freedom House Data

 

Each of Biden, Trump, and Kennedy are significantly older than the average American, and the question of whether they–or any senior citizen candidate-can adequately represent the public’s interests, let alone youth interests, is dubious. And yet, it is one of these three men that will ostensibly be the ‘leader of the free world’ (as much as that is a misnomer for the office) come November. What does that say about the US presidential requirements? I don’t know, but I will be tuning in on 27^th June with popcorn, to watch one angry deaf grandpa shuffle slowly across the stage to argue with another, slightly angrier, slightly deafer, grandpa. ∎

 

Words by Treya Agarwal. Graphic courtesy of Alice Robey-Cave.