![]() | It has been suggested that this article be merged into Withdrawal of Joe Biden from the 2024 United States presidential election . (Discuss) Proposed since August 2024. |
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At 81 years of age, Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States, is the oldest sitting president in United States history. [1] [2] Former Republican president Donald Trump and mass media raised concerns about his age, including his cognitive state, during and after the 2020 United States presidential election. These concerns increased after a poor performance by Biden during a debate against Trump in the 2024 presidential election, which led a number of commentators and some Democratic lawmakers to call for Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race. [3] He later withdrew his candidacy while stating that he would continue serving as president until the conclusion of his term. [4]
In February 1988, after several episodes of increasingly severe neck pain, Biden underwent surgery to correct a leaking intracranial berry aneurysm. [5] [6] While recuperating, he suffered a pulmonary embolism, a serious complication. [6] After a second aneurysm was surgically repaired in May, [6] [7] Biden's recuperation kept him away from the Senate for seven months. [8]
In 2018, when Biden was considering running for president, he consulted with friends, aides, and longtime supporters as to whether he was too old to seek the presidency. [9] By 2019, The New York Times , The Washington Post , Politico , CNN, The Atlantic , the Associated Press, and Slate all published articles on Biden's age and fitness for office. [10] That year, in advance of the 2020 United States presidential election, many of his Democratic opponents used his age against Biden, who was 76 at the time. Biden supporters criticized this as ageist discrimination. [11] According to ABC News, Vladimir Putin and the Russian government spread disinformation about Biden's mental health during the 2020 presidential election, [12] and the Department of Homeland Security withheld publication of a bulletin warning law enforcement agencies about this campaign. [13]
During and in the years since the 2020 presidential campaign, Trump has claimed, without evidence, that Biden has dementia, calling him "Sleepy Joe" at rallies. [14] This angle has remained popular among right-wing media outlets. [15] [16] [17] On a couple of occasions during the 2020 campaign Biden called himself a "bridge candidate", leading some to believe he would not seek a second term. [18] The Biden administration has routinely aimed to make light of the president's age by poking fun and joking about it. This approach has been met with both praise and mockery. [19] [20] [2] The Biden administration has also been criticized for allegedly gaslighting or harassing journalists who asked questions about Biden's health or age. [21]
For Biden's 81st birthday, he had a birthday cake with 81 individual candles. The image, which was jokingly captioned to be for his "146th birthday", brought to the surface concerns among the public about Biden's age according to a majority of those polled at the time. [22] [23]
In 2022, a New York Times–Siena College poll found that 61% of Democratic voters wanted someone other than Biden to be the presidential nominee, citing his age as the main concern. Biden's aides dismissed age-related concerns as politically motivated attacks by Republicans. [24] James Carville, [25] Ezra Klein, [26] and The Economist called for Biden to not run again as early as 2022. [27] According to Biden's 2023 annual physical examination, he is in good health for a man of his age. Biden is on medication for non-valvular atrial fibrillation (a form of irregular heartbeat), has a mild sensory peripheral neuropathy, and has a stiff gait due to spinal arthritis and the aftereffects of injury. No signs of cognitive decline or dementia were noted. [28] [29]
According to a 2024 poll, Biden's age and health are major or moderate concerns for 86% of voters generally, [30] up from 76% earlier in 2020. [31] According to another 2024 poll, most of those who voted for Biden in 2020 say they believe he is too old to be an effective president; The New York Times noted that these concerns "cut across generations, gender, race and education". [32] The Wall Street Journal has reported that since 2023 or earlier, Biden's team has limited his schedule, personal interactions, media appearances, interviews, and unscripted exchanges in order to minimize concerns about his age and mental acuity. [33] Democrats were concerned about his ability to serve a second term, as he would be 86 if he won a second term when he gets out. Many of them were also concerned if he could beat Donald Trump a second time.
Upon concluding the investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents, special counsel Robert Hur suggested that Biden would be able to present himself to a jury as an "elderly man with poor memory" and wrote that his memory "appeared to have significant limitations". [34] White House lawyers disputed this characterization, [31] and Biden rejected the claim in a televised press conference on the day the special counsel's report was released; during the conference, he referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as President of Mexico. [35]
On June 27, 2024, Biden took part in the first presidential debate. The debate reinforced concerns about Biden's age, with Biden appearing confused and disoriented during its first half, giving meandering answers to questions, particularly on health policy. [36] The New York Times reporter Reid Epstein wondered whether voters would see him as someone physically able to run the country, even if they preferred his policies to Trump's. [37] Some Democrats were unsure whether he should continue his campaign. [38] [39] Many officials and foreign leaders who encountered Biden in the months to year preceding the debate noticed he was increasingly frail, tired, meandering, and less lucid in his speech. In many parts of Europe, this led to concern about a second Trump presidency. [40] Biden declined to undergo a cognitive exam such as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, saying that he has "a cognitive test every single day" in performing his presidential duties. [41] It later emerged that a neurologist specializing in Parkinson's disease had met this year with Physician to the President Kevin O'Connor; O'Connor and the White House both said Biden was not being treated for the disease and that other officials use O'Connor as their physician. [42] [43] [44]
On July 17, 2024, Biden tested positive for COVID-19. He experienced mild symptoms, including a cough, runny nose, and "general malaise". [45] Images of him looking frail exiting from Air Force One on the way to isolation fuelled further speculation on Biden's health. [46]
On July 21, 2024, Joe Biden, the incumbent Democratic president of the United States, announced his withdrawal from the 2024 United States presidential election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement.
Biden had announced that he would run for re-election in the 2024 presidential election on April 25, 2023, with Harris again as his running mate. [47] Biden won an overwhelming majority of delegates in the 2024 Democratic Party presidential primaries and was already considered the presumptive nominee before the primaries were over. However, public concerns about Biden's age and health had emerged during his presidency, particularly about his fitness for the office and ability to carry out a second term.
These concerns spiked after a debate between Biden and Republican Party candidate Donald Trump on June 27, 2024. Biden's performance was widely criticized, with commentators noting he frequently lost his train of thought and gave meandering answers, had a faltering appearance, spoke with a hoarse voice, and failed to recall statistics or coherently express his opinion on several occasions. [48] Biden subsequently faced calls to withdraw from the race from fellow Democrats [49] and from the editorial boards of major news outlets. [50] [51] By July 19, 2024, more than 30 senior Democrats had called for him to withdraw. [52]
Biden repeatedly insisted for weeks after the debate that he would remain a candidate, despite numerous calls for him to withdraw. [53] However, on July 21, 2024, he withdrew his candidacy via a signed letter posted on his personal X account, writing that this was "in the best interest of my party and the country", while stating that he would continue serving as president until the conclusion of his term. [54] Biden was the first incumbent president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 to withdraw from a reelection race, the first since the 19th century to withdraw after serving only one term, [lower-alpha 1] and the only one ever to withdraw after already winning the primaries. [55] [57]Ronald Alan Klain is an American attorney, political consultant, and former lobbyist who served as White House chief of staff under President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2023.
The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and the junior U.S. senator from California Kamala Harris defeated the incumbent Republican president, Donald Trump, and vice president, Mike Pence. The election took place against the backdrop of the global COVID-19 pandemic and related recession. The election saw the highest voter turnout by percentage since 1900, with each of the two main tickets receiving more than 74 million votes, surpassing Barack Obama's record of 69.5 million votes from 2008. Biden received more than 81 million votes, the most votes ever cast for a candidate in a U.S. presidential election.
On April 25, 2019, former vice president Joe Biden released a video announcing his candidacy in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. On November 3, 2020, Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, defeated incumbent Republican president Donald Trump and vice president Mike Pence in the general election.
At 78 years, 1 month and 26 days of age, Donald Trump is the oldest major-party presidential nominee in history, after incumbent President Joe Biden withdrew from contention prior to becoming the nominee of his own party in the 2024 United States presidential election. If elected, by the end of his term he would become the oldest person ever to hold the office, sparking renewed discussion of his physical fitness to assume the presidency. Since the early days of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, his physical and mental health have been a subject of public debate. Trump was seventy years old when he first took office, surpassing Ronald Reagan as the oldest person to assume the presidency to that date. During Trump's presidency, comments on his age, weight and lifestyle have raised questions about his physical health. In addition, numerous public figures, media sources, and mental health professionals have speculated that Donald Trump may have mental health challenges, ranging from narcissistic personality disorder to some form of dementia. Trump has denied these claims, and has contested the authority and motives of persons making such claims. White House physicians who examined him during that time reported no issues.
Dean Benson Phillips is an American politician and businessman who has served as the U.S. representative from Minnesota's 3rd congressional district since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, his district encompasses the western suburbs of the Twin Cities, such as Bloomington, Minnetonka, Edina, Maple Grove, Plymouth, and Eden Prairie. Outside of politics, Phillips has both owned and started several companies in addition to serving as president and CEO of his family's liquor business, the Phillips Distilling Company. He is the former co-owner of Talenti gelato and co-owns Penny's Coffee.
The 2024 United States presidential election will be the 60th quadrennial presidential election, set to be held on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. Voters in each state and the District of Columbia will choose a slate of electors to the U.S. Electoral College, who will then elect a president and vice president for a term of four years.
The debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the major candidates in the 2020 United States presidential election, were sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. There were three initially planned scheduled debates. The first debate took place on September 29, 2020. The next debate was scheduled to take place on October 15 but was later canceled due to Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis and refusal to appear remotely rather than in person. As a result, 2020 had the fewest debates since 1996. The final debate took place on October 22. Additionally, a debate between the vice presidential candidates Mike Pence and Kamala Harris took place on October 7.
This is a timeline of major events leading up to, during, and after the 2024 United States presidential election. This will be the first presidential election to be run with population data from the 2020 census. In addition to the dates mandated by the relevant federal laws such as those in the U.S. Constitution and the Electoral Count Act, several milestones have consistently been observed since the adoption of the conclusions of the 1971 McGovern–Fraser Commission.
From January 23 to June 8, 2024, presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the delegates to the 2024 Democratic National Convention, to determine the party's nominee for president in the 2024 United States presidential election. The elections took place in all U.S. states, the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories, and Democrats Abroad.
Donald Trump, who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, announced his campaign for a nonconsecutive second presidential term in the 2024 U.S. presidential election on November 15, 2022. After he won a landslide victory in the 2024 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses, Trump was generally described as being the Republican Party's presumptive nominee for president, with a process of consolidation then underway. He was officially nominated on July 15, 2024 at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, when he also announced JD Vance, the junior U.S. Senator from Ohio, as the nominee for vice president and campaign partner. Trump then accepted his nomination during the final day of the convention on July 18, If elected into office, Trump will become the oldest president in American history and the second to serve a non-consecutive term after Grover Cleveland.
Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States, has been in the national spotlight for over half a century, ever since he won his first election to the United States Senate in 1972. Biden is seen as a figure with the tendency to commit gaffes. His capacity for empathy has been noted, as has his tendency for exaggeration. Biden's approval ratings as president started strong, but declined after the fall of Kabul on August 15, 2021. As the oldest president in US history, Biden's age and health have been the subject of discussion, with some polls finding the issue a subject of concern to a significant majority of Americans. A long-standing parody of Biden by The Onion, popular during his time as Barack Obama's vice president, is thought by some to have contributed positively to his public image.
Joe Biden, the 46th and incumbent president of the United States, announced his candidacy for re-election for a second presidential term on April 25, 2023, with Vice President Kamala Harris as his running mate. He suspended the campaign on July 21, 2024.
The 2024 United States presidential election in Arizona is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, as part of the 2024 United States elections in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia will participate. Arizona voters will choose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote. The state of Arizona has 11 electoral votes in the Electoral College, following reapportionment due to the 2020 United States census in which the state neither gained nor lost a seat. Arizona is considered to be a crucial swing state in 2024.
The 2024 United States presidential election in Georgia is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, as part of the 2024 United States elections in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia will participate. Georgia voters will choose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote. The state of Georgia has 16 electoral votes in the Electoral College, following reapportionment due to the 2020 United States census in which it neither gained nor lost a seat. Georgia is considered to be a crucial swing state in 2024.
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The 2024 United States presidential election in Nevada is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, as part of the 2024 United States elections in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia will participate. Nevada voters will choose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote. The state of Nevada has six electoral votes in the Electoral College, following reapportionment due to the 2020 United States census in which the state neither gained nor lost a seat.
The 2024 United States presidential election in Tennessee is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, as part of the 2024 United States elections in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia will participate. Tennessee voters will choose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote. The state of Tennessee has 11 electoral votes in the Electoral College, following reapportionment due to the 2020 United States census in which the state neither gained nor lost a seat.
The 2024 United States presidential election in Texas is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, as part of the 2024 United States elections in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia will participate. Texas voters will choose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote. The state of Texas has 40 electoral votes in the Electoral College, following reapportionment due to the 2020 United States census in which the state gained two seats.
The first general election debate between the major candidates of the 2024 United States presidential election was sponsored by CNN and attended by presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump on June 27, 2024. Biden withdrew from the race in July, and was replaced by Kamala Harris, while Trump became the official Republican nominee that same month. The second debate, which will be sponsored by ABC, is scheduled to be held on September 10, 2024.
On July 21, 2024, Joe Biden, the incumbent Democratic president of the United States, announced his withdrawal from the 2024 United States presidential election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Between the lines: Biden's campaign comments likely signaled that he was only running because of who his opponent was, Anthony Fowler, a professor at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy, told Axios. "You could argue he's trying to kind of have it both ways. He's trying to kind of tell people, 'Don't worry, I'm only running for one term,' without ever actually explicitly promising that," Fowler said.