Wendell Husebø
Axios on Monday raised concerns about President Joe Biden’s 2024 political viability due to his age and stamina.
Just two days after the New York Times revealed its worries about Biden returning to the campaign trail due to old age, lack of excitement, and failing track record, Axios reported that “Democrats now are privately debating whether Biden, already the oldest president, will be fit to run for reelection.”
“At the end of a second term, he’d be 86,” the publication noted.
The Axios article seemed to agree with the Times that Biden is not fit for another four years as president. Quoting David Axelrod from the Times article, Axios disclosed Biden would be nearly 90 years old at the end of his second term.
“The presidency is a monstrously taxing job and the stark reality is the president would be closer to 90 than 80 at the end of a second term, and that would be a major issue,” Axelrod said.
But according to Axios, sources close to Biden pushed back against fears surrounding his old age by claiming the president is the only Democrat who can defeat a potential Donald Trump campaign in 2024.
“People close to the president tell Axios that voters’ qualms about age will be obviated by Biden being the only candidate who has beaten Trump,” Axios wrote. “But Axios’ conversations show Biden confidants are acutely aware of the issue, and deeply worried about its power in a re-election race.”
Several other establishment media publications have also downplayed Biden’s chances of running in 2024.
“There are doubts he will follow through on his plans because of his age — Biden would be 81 in November 2024 — and because of the brutal political headwinds he and his party are now facing,” a Hill article read in early June. “Biden’s approval ratings have sunk to the mid-30s in some polls.”
FiveThirtyEight titled a story on June 3, “Americans Are Unusually Lukewarm About A Second Biden Term,” which claimed “some Americans don’t believe” Biden will seek a second term, citing polling data.
Vanity Fair wrote an article conveying that “Democrats are already feeling out their options” for 2024. The article suggested that if Biden doesn’t run, the Democrat party does not have a true leader and would be in “complete fucking chaos.”
An April poll showed that a majority of voters believe Biden is unfit to be president and doubt his mental ability. Fifty-three percent of respondents said they had “doubts” about Biden’s mental ability. Sixty-two percent said Biden is not fit to be president because he is too old.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
