Eighty-year-old President Joe Biden’s health and age “severely limit” his ability to discharge his duties even as he readies to run again in 2024, nearly half of independent voters say in a poll released Wednesday.
An Economist-YouGov poll set out some 45 percent of U.S. adults question the White House octogenarian’s health and age as “severely limit his ability to do the job.”
Just 11 percent think Biden’s age and health have “no effect at all” on his job performance, and 34 percent think those factors have “little effect.” Another 10 percent aren’t sure.
The answers veer sharply between the two major parties, with 77 percent of Republicans thinking Biden’s age and health severely limit his ability to perform his duties, compared to just 13 percent of Democrats. Forty-eight percent of independents surveyed said the same.
Those questioning the president’s powers are not alone.
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As Breitbart News reported, the line is getting longer of voters and fellow Democrats who simply think Biden, who is already the oldest president to sit in the Oval Office, is just not up to the job.
Recent polling shows that 67 percent of voters believe Biden is too old to be president and 56 percent have doubts about his mental fitness.
Just last month twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton conceded Biden’s age does pose a challenge but urged voters to look beyond the president’s advancing years to embrace his record instead.
Clinton, 75, addressed the 80-year-old president’s fitness for office at the Financial Times Weekend Festival in Washington by saying “his age is an issue, and people have every right to consider” it, according to Fox News.
Biden’s close advisers are also worried about his advancing years and “diminished” energy.
The president’s advisers say Biden, who would be 86 by the end of a second term, is mentally sharp but worry “his age has diminished his energy” needed for a rigorous campaign, according an Axios report.
“Many White House officials say they’re amazed at Biden’s stamina — often adding the caveat: ‘for his age,’” the report said before revealing Biden eschews public or private events outside the hours of 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
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“Some White House officials say it’s difficult to schedule public or private events with the president in the morning, in the evening, or on weekends: The vast majority of Biden’s public events happen on weekdays, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m,” according to Axios.
Biden’s staffers have tried to work around his short battery life in 2023 by scheduling a small number of public events outside the times of 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., the report detailed, noting since January 1 there have been very few events outside that time frame:
- Only four public events before 10 a.m.
- Just a dozen public events after 6 p.m. — mostly dinners and receptions with foreign leaders or fundraisers.
- 12 full weekends with no public events.
Assistant House Democrat leader Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), who also serves as Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign co-chair, last month conceded the president’s age is a “legitimate concern.”
Clyburn reportedly speaks with the president regularly and has been credited for helping Biden win their party’s primary during the 2020 presidential election. His endorsement of Biden in the primary ultimately helped him over the finish line after suffering multiple early-state losses.
However, he has shown concern over Biden’s age going into the next election cycle.
“Joe Biden I’m sure has lost a step,” the 82-year-old South Carolina Democrat said about the 80-year-old president, according to a Vanity Fair article.
“It’s a legitimate concern. I don’t hit my 5-iron as far as I used to—but I can still play 36 holes of golf a day. You learn how to make certain adjustments,” Clyburn added, by way of concession.