For years, President Joe Biden had a ready response for skeptics questioning his ability and eligibility to run for president again at the age of 81 and serve until he is 86: he would simply say, "Watch me." However, in the days following his stumble during a debate watched by tens of millions of Americans, Biden essentially adopted a new line: "Trust me." He stated at a fundraising event in New York the following night, "Guys, I won't run again if I don't wholeheartedly believe that I can do this job," according to the *New York Times*.
Nevertheless, the president's problem is that even on the eve of his faltering debate, a poll conducted by *The New York Times* in conjunction with Siena College revealed that 69% of voters, including 55% of Biden voters, believe that Biden is too old to be an effective candidate. This is not a new concern; for nearly two years, a large majority of Democratic voters have expressed a desire for a new standard bearer.
Now, these ongoing fears among ordinary Americans are being publicly echoed by many within the Democratic Party's critic circle and privately by lawmakers, donors, and strategists, who have expressed concerns about losing the 2024 campaign against former President Donald Trump, whom many see as an existential threat to the nation.
One Democratic lawmaker texted donor Whitney Tilson: "Biden's performance in the debate was a disaster that may have no recovery."
Around Biden, a siege mentality has emerged within his team, which remembers how he stood firm against skeptics four years ago to win the nomination and defeat Trump. Ted Kaufman, one of Biden's closest advisors and former chief of staff in the Senate, stated in an interview: "He really is at his best when critics overreact and count him out. He has a strong record, and I think he should stay — he’s the best president in modern history."
When the president recently gathered with his family at Camp David, his advisors hastily tracked any potential prominent Democrats who might abandon their party leader. Biden's team discussed arranging an interview or press conference to soothe anxious party members even before Mika Brzezinski, co-host of the MSNBC show that Biden often wakes up to watch, mentioned on Monday's monologue that "America needs an explanation from Joe Biden and reassurance that last night was a one-off event." On Monday night, Biden returned to the White House and delivered a speech about the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity, speaking for five minutes with teleprompter assistance but took no questions.
In the spring of this year, top advisors in Biden's party pushed for the earliest general election debate in history, as a means of forcing voters to accept the reality of a rematch between Trump and Biden, which polls have repeatedly shown they do not want. According to the report, this was a calculated gamble at a time when Biden was trailing in the polls. The thinking at that time was that once this contradiction became more apparent and the competition undeniable, those Democrats who had remained neutral would rejoin the party fold. Instead, the debate failure ignited a new round of questions about whether Biden should remain at the top of the ticket.
At the very least, this prolonged the conversation that his team hoped to extinguish. Democrats believe Biden has aged, as most presidents do. However, as early as late 2021, the White House doctor noted a change, observing frequent "throat clearing," or "a cough," and Biden's gait had become "significantly stiffer" compared to a year earlier, prompting a recommendation for "shoe insoles."
Biden's handlers insisted he is capable of handling his reelection campaign, even when their management of him hinted otherwise. He began using shorter staircases to board Air Force One after his stumbling and falling incidents became widely circulated. He held fewer press conferences than his predecessors, did not conduct a pre-Super Bowl interview, and intentionally made his events and press conferences shorter as well.
After a special counsel report touched on his mental acuity in ways the White House deemed unwarranted — describing him as "a well-meaning elderly man with a weak memory" — Biden called for an evening press conference to refute that description, mistakenly referencing the Egyptian president instead of the Mexican one.
