Democrats and various media publications have tried to depict former President Donald Trump as too old to be president again, but polling data indicates that voters are not persuaded by that line of attack.
Particularly after the Trump campaign dropped out of several interviews and a Trump adviser attributed some of the cancellations on Trump being “exhausted” after a busy campaign stretch, Democrats and corporate media outlets repeatedly suggested or plainly stated that Trump is too old to handle the rigors of the campaign trail and the presidency. However, the latest New York Times-Siena poll indicates that the share of voters who believe Trump is too old for the job has remained about the same since July, the same month that President Joe Biden quit the race after struggling to speak coherently in his June debate against Trump.
“The percentage of Americans who said that Mr. Trump, who is 78, is too old to be president remained at 41 percent, essentially unchanged from July even after a series of rambling campaign speeches and appearances led to a swell of questions, including direct criticism from Ms. Harris, about the former president’s mental acuity and fitness,” the NYT reported. (RELATED: CNN Panel Jokes About Dems Being Able To Attack Trump On Age Now That Biden’s Out)
‘They Shielded Him From Us’: Mike Lee Tells Tucker Carlson About Shocking Story Regarding Biden’s Mental Fitnesshttps://t.co/C6gxUTX09d
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 31, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris — who has dodged questions about what, if anything, she knew about Biden’s cognitive decline while working as his number two — said that Trump is too tired to campaign effectively to a gaggle of reporters in Philadelphia. Notably, Harris has held 61 events since Sept. 1, while Trump has held 76 in the same period of time, according to the NYT.
“As for last night, yet again, Trump not showing up, refused to be a part of a CNN debate,” Harris said, referencing the Wednesday night CNN town hall in which she called Trump a fascist. “And clearly, his staff has been saying he’s exhausted. And the sad part about that is he’s trying to be president of the United States, probably the toughest job in the world, and he’s exhausted.”
Numerous corporate media outlets also ran stories or columns on Trump’s supposed exhaustion, including Politico, The Washington Post, Axios, New York Magazine, USA Today and Newsweek, among others.
Notably, political journalist Mark Halperin — widely regarded as one of the most deeply-sourced journalists in America — recently told Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson that White House reporters for major corporate news organizations mentioned to him that they were aware of Biden’s cognitive decline, but their companies would not cover the issue aggressively despite its obvious significance.
While voters do not seem to be moved by the Democrats’ messaging push about Trump’s age, the electorate had concerns about Biden’s acuity even before the disastrous debate that led to the end of his reelection campaign. A September 2023 poll from The Economist and YouGov found that 57% of respondents believed Biden’s age would “severely limit” his ability to run the country if reelected, and other polling by the same entities in the run-up to the fateful debate reflected similar figures, according to ABC News.
In addition to the many Democratic lawmakers that called on Biden to drop out of the race publicly, high-ranking Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, maneuvered behind the scenes in the wake of the debate to get Biden to quit the campaign because they felt strongly his candidacy was no longer viable. After nearly a month of pressure, Biden relented and dropped out, though he did not explicitly cite his age or cognitive decline as reasons for having done so in his address to the nation explaining the decision.
The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
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