Whether it is taking the stairs two at a time as he boards Marine One, the jog strides he adds striding across the apron to Air Force One, or the youthful aviator sunglasses that appear with the sun, President Joe Biden knows how to demonstrate the vigor that people expect in their commander in chief.
His Twitter feed includes a steady stream of slow-motion videos showing the 78-year-old striding purposefully from one place to another.
But a recent stumble on the executive jet’s stairs ignited fresh concerns about his fitness and scrutiny of the way the White House is managing the optics of the nation’s oldest president.
Presidential historian Craig Shirley said displays of fitness are a staple of the TV-era presidency, from John F. Kennedy playing tennis to Ronald Reagan chopping logs. The White House strategy was clear in the 64-day wait for Biden’s first press conference, he added, and the occasional early “lid,” sending journalists home around 1 p.m.
“I think they are rationing him,” he said. “This could work to his advantage by lowering expectations politically, but it’s a dangerous game to play if the perception is real that he is doddering, old, and decrepit.”
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Right-wing TV hosts and critics have frequently claimed to have spotted signs of dementia in Biden’s verbal delivery. Former President Donald Trump, only three years younger than Biden and also subject to similar claims of senility by opponents, used his challenger’s health as an attack line on the campaign trail.
And when last month Biden tripped on the steps of Air Force One, it set off a fresh chorus of concern that he is in serious decline.
GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson, a former White House doctor, said: “I know first-hand what it takes physically and mentally to do the job. It is a burden. It is very difficult and Joe Biden’s not up to the job.”
One week down. pic.twitter.com/yxrkWAXlkL
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 28, 2021
“I can look at the 40 years of tape that are out there during his time in public service and compare it to the Joe Biden who is president. And I can tell you there’s been a big change. These aren’t gaffes, these are different,” Jackson continued.
Yet, Republican senators who have met recently with Biden describe him as “sharp as a tack.”
And a study published during last year’s campaign suggested that both Biden and Trump were in good overall health. Geriatricians analyzed their public health records and concluded there was evidence that each candidate had the attributes of “superagers,” capable of reaching their 80s with the sort of cognitive functioning more usually seen in the middle-aged.
Stuart Jay Olshansky, lead author and a professor of public health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who analyzes the longevity of presidents, said Biden’s trip or verbal slips were meaningless as a measure of fitness for office.
“People see what they want to see and if they want to see verbal slip-ups as an indication of some sort of problem with cognitive functioning, then someone will write a story about that,” he said. “The problem is politics enters into these evaluations, and it shouldn’t.”
“It’s pure basic public health and medicine, and what you’re seeing is perfectly normal of that age,” Olshansky added.
Even so, Biden’s handlers have gone out of their way to make sure his age does not become an issue.
Last year, they reportedly ordered comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus to drop a joke about Trump’s apparent frailty from her Democratic National Convention appearance for fear it would simply trigger questions about Biden’s health.
According to the recently published account of the 2020 campaign titled Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency, she had planned to say that the Democratic candidate understood hard work, while “the only time Donald Trump has struggled is walking down a ramp and trying to drink a glass of water.”
“We’re not opening with the dementia thing,” said Stephanie Cutter, chief program executive, as she ordered the change.
51 days down. pic.twitter.com/DGsWdxEkz1
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 13, 2021
Opinion polls suggest the public has yet to catch up with the fact that people are living longer and working well into their 80s.
A Pew Research Center survey in 2019 found only 3% of Democrats and those leaning Democratic said they wanted a president in his or her 70s. Some 47% opted for a president in his or her 50s.
The result was a campaign last year that shied away from addressing questions about how best to manage an aging population, according to campaigners who hoped the age of the two candidates would bring those issues to the fore.
“Are President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden addressing this ‘age wave’ and offering innovative solutions? No,” said Ken Dychtwald, author most recently of What Retirees Want: A Holistic View of Life’s Third Age. “Is it because they don’t want anyone to think they’re old — even though they are? Maybe.”
For now, the president is responding with his own little displays of physical prowess.
This week, he juggled a briefcase and umbrella as he climbed those tricky Air Force One steps in the pouring rain — not easy at any age.
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And the White House has committed to releasing the results of his next physical checkup.
“I don’t have a timeline, but absolutely, we will do that,” said press secretary Jen Psaki.
