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Election 2024

Joe Biden: The Latest Elderly Politician Who Refuses To Retire

Biden's performance at Thursday's debate made clear that he should have bowed out after a single term, but many politicians stick around long past their sell-by date.

Joe Lancaster | 6.28.2024 3:20 PM

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President Joe Biden stands alone on the debate stage behind a lectern. | Ben Hendren/Sipa USA/Newscom
(Ben Hendren/Sipa USA/Newscom)

By now, any interested person with an internet connection has seen President Joe Biden's uncomfortably poor showing in his first debate against former President Donald Trump for the 2024 presidential campaign season. Contrary to assurances that, behind closed doors, Biden is as sharp and lucid as ever, the president appeared frail and struggled to even make his most basic points for most of the 90-minute debate, renewing concerns about his age and mental fitness. Much of the ensuing news coverage involves the possibility of Democrats replacing Biden on the ticket in November.

But whatever ultimately happens between now and the election—or even between now and the Democratic National Convention in August—Biden had every opportunity to avoid this outcome and declined to do so. It's indicative of a trend among lawmakers that he instead opted to cling to power for a little longer.

In March 2020, as he sought the Democratic Party's nomination, Biden campaigned in Michigan with Sens. Kamala Harris (D–Calif.) and Cory Booker (D–N.J.). Each had recently exited the primary and endorsed Biden, and at a Detroit campaign rally, he delivered a message both to them and to voters.

"Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else," he said. "There's an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country." Weeks later, he said, "I view myself as a transition candidate" for other "people on the bench that are ready to go in."

In each case, Biden seemed to indicate that he only intended to serve one term. There had been murmurs for some time that this was his plan: Politico reported in December 2019 that privately, Biden was "indicating that he will almost certainly not run for a second term while declining to make a promise that he and his advisers fear could turn him into a lame duck and sap him of his political capital." (Later the same day, Biden denied making any such determination.) Carl Bernstein even said in 2015 that Biden was considering a one-term run in 2016, due to concerns about his age.

But if it were ever Biden's intention to win in 2020, evict Trump from the White House, and step aside to make way for the next generation of leaders, that's not what happened. Biden announced his bid for reelection on April 25, 2023; the same day, FiveThirtyEight had Biden's approval numbers nearly 11 points underwater, and he has not been net positive since August 2021.

Why not step aside and make way for Biden's vaunted bench, whom he called "the future of this country?" Democrats have seemingly spent no time even considering other candidates. The most obvious contender, literally waiting in the wings, would be Vice President Kamala Harris—who, as Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown has detailed, would be a different sort of disaster, both as a candidate and as a potential president. Before he announced his bid for reelection, Semafor's David Weigel wrote of "the great paradox of 2024: Most Democrats say they want an alternative to Biden, but no alternative they're happy with wants to run."

Ultimately, the president's insistence on running for reelection, even as the available evidence indicates his unsuitability, feels more like a naked grasp for power than a good-faith assessment of one's own capability. And on that metric, Biden is not alone.

When Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D–Calif.) died in 2023 at age 90, she was the oldest sitting U.S. senator. She had also been dogged for years by allegations that she was experiencing cognitive decline and should step down, even while she served as the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In 2022, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R–Iowa) was reelected to his eighth term in the Senate, at the end of which he would be 95 years old. He has also since filed paperwork to run again when that term ends. (This does not necessarily mean that Grassley actually intends to serve past his centenary: Federal election rules require registering as a candidate in order to do certain things like raise money.) The nonagenarian Grassley himself sits on five committees, including the Senate Budget Committee, on which he is the ranking member.

Is it plausible that Chuck Grassley is the only Republican candidate who could serve as Iowa's U.S. senator? The Cook Political Report ranked the state six points more Republican than the nation as a whole in 2022; Grassley defeated his Democratic opponent by twice that margin. Certainly Republicans weren't starved for candidates who could win that race.

Similarly, when Democrats retook the House of Representatives in 2018, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.) jockeyed to retake the House speakership, after serving in that role in 2007–2011. Pelosi managed to defeat a rebellion within the Democratic ranks in part by pledging to serve no more than two more terms in the role. She even seemed to echo Biden, saying, "I see myself as a bridge to the next generation of leaders." Pelosi ultimately relinquished the gavel four years later, at age 82, when Republicans won back the chamber.

This is not to say that either Grassley or Pelosi is mentally unfit to serve. But most people don't stay in a job that long: Retirees are eligible to start drawing Social Security benefits as early as age 62 or as late as 70. By sticking around long past the average person's sell-by date, these 80- and 90-something lawmakers give the impression that they care more about clinging to power than about effectively governing.

In the coming years, Congress will consider whether to draft regulations concerning social media, trillion-dollar tech companies, and artificial intelligence, plus any number of other developments that aren't even on the radar. Like Biden, these literal elder statesmen should have considered whether people who were born before the invention of Kitty Litter are truly qualified to draft rules for an increasingly digital world.

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NEXT: Supreme Court Rules That Punishing the Homeless for Sleeping Outside Isn't 'Cruel and Unusual'

Joe Lancaster is an assistant editor at Reason.

Election 2024Joe BidenPoliticsCampaigns/ElectionsPresidential DebateDonald TrumpPresidential CandidatesBiden Administration
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  1. Rick James   1 year ago

    He's old! He's old! Old people like Thomas Sowell can't even complete a sentence!

    1. JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)   1 year ago

      It isnt his policies that are bad, he is just old. Didnt you read the 2019 reason article on who they were voting for??

      1. Nardz   1 year ago

        https://x.com/prowrstlngstrng/status/1806759812086346030?t=_k5k3SWgaN-L5rT_xUTqiw&s=19

        Gen X ironycel dorks are so lame. Complete cultural dinosaurs

        "Actually both candidates suck. I'm too smart for politics"

        Thanks bro. Now go back to making 30 year old Simpson's references, and listening to Pearl Jam while serious people take it from here

        1. MrMxyzptlk   1 year ago

          Fuck you. I thought you kids were supposed to be all about the DEI and such. You're stereotyping your elders. I never watched the Simpsons and I've no idea who pearl jam are.

          1. VULGAR MADMAN   1 year ago

            Calm down bro.

          2. EISTAU Gree-Vance   1 year ago

            “…..I’ve no idea who Pearl Jam are.”

            You lie about yourself and your experiences a lot. Why do you think you do that?

        2. JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)   1 year ago

          Man they nailed Brandy, Sarc, and Mike.

    2. MrMxyzptlk   1 year ago

      Writing books and speaking at graduations is noteably less intensive as serving as the leader of the free world. I wouldn't suggest Sowell run for any office no matter how much I like his books.

  2. Bertram Guilfoyle   1 year ago

    Remember after the SOTU address, gems like this:

    “Nobody’s gonna talk about cognitive impairment now!” - Jeremy Nadler

    1. Public Entelectual   1 year ago

      Why are people upset about a President channeling the Great Seal of State?
      Our national motto is " He nodded at the beginning"

  3. Sandra (formerly OBL)   1 year ago

    Obama says Biden should stay.

    As long as he has the Lightworker in his corner I'm not sure if any amount of MSM pleading will make him reconsider.

    1. Chupacabra   1 year ago

      So the puppet master reveals himself....

    2. Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)   1 year ago

      That doesn’t bode well for the democrats. The only person that could replace Kamala, who would be a horrible disaster as frontrunner is Michelle Obama. Apparently she’s not interested.

    3. JFree   1 year ago

      That's big since Obama is the only person other than Jill Biden who can herald the closing bell.

    4. CE   1 year ago

      Very illuminating....

    5. Spiritus Mundi   1 year ago

      Just curious as someone who thinks Trump was a bad decision, wouldn't any democrat be better than Joe at this point? Why not ditch him? It's not like he is making any decisions.

      1. Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)   1 year ago

        Because Kamala is an even bigger loser than her senile buffoon of a boss. And how do they get rid of her? No matter what I’ve they use, it will be seen by their race obsessed base as kicking the first black woman VP to the curb.

  4. Sevo, 5-30-24, embarrassment   1 year ago

    Joe, you're full of shit. It is not his age, it's his dementia.

    1. MrMxyzptlk   1 year ago

      Sure. Because the world is full of over 80 people who are sharp as tacks and just as active as they were in their teen age years.

      1. Sevo, 5-30-24, embarrassment   1 year ago

        Drag that strawman all the way from home, or find it on the way?
        All we need is one and the activity is irrelevant: FDR was the worst POTUS in history, but it wasn't because he was wheelchair bound.

  5. WWestmiller   1 year ago

    Ginsburg Syndrome ... Hanging on until you can do the most damage to your cause.

    1. soldiermedic76   1 year ago

      The whole RBG holding on to long worked out fairly well for those who believe in the Constitution. More evidence of that today.

      1. Sevo, 5-30-24, embarrassment   1 year ago

        Imagine if HRC had been able to make those appointments! Whew!

  6. Brian   1 year ago

    Why would a democrat run against Biden when they could run against Trump in 2028?

    1. Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)   1 year ago

      ????????

    2. soldiermedic76   1 year ago

      Ummm!!!! Heard of the 22A per chance? It's in this document called the Constitution. Maybe you've heard of it.

      1. MrMxyzptlk   1 year ago

        Like either major party gives a shit about that old rag.

  7. JFree   1 year ago

    This isn't really about the politician. This is what the donor class wants. The worst regular outcome for donors is competitive elections with turnover. Donors care about the return on political investment.

    Just look at Grassley as an example. He was first elected in 1980. That was a watershed election for R's, in this case, marking one of only five elections (1920, 1932, 1946, 1958) in which 10 or more Senate seats changed hands. It was the first time R's gained control of the Senate since 1955. All the stars were aligned for R's that year and donors (x Koch) also focused on R races that year. Four of the ten 'flips' were R's becoming the first R from their state since Reconstruction and the first real results of the Southern strategy. Three were defeats of 'big names' (Church, Bayh, Magnuson). Two were defeats of one-termers (including Grassleys opponent) who are always more vulnerable.

    Unless all the stars align from the top of the ticket to the bottom, outcomes can be very unpredictable for donors. Making it more expensive to get results. In most years, they will simply back the incumbents and figure out ways to earn their political rent by protecting incumbents from challenges. In watershed years, they can all shift over to the other side of the boat and earn their political rent via the all at once change (funded via wholesale messaging that creates that watershed change).

    For reasons that I can't figure - there haven't been any 'watershed' years since 1980. Only four elections (1986, 1994, 2008, 2014) even have 8 or more flips. So there's a long period of time where donors have generally been backing incumbents (who are getting two years older every two years) and preventing challenges. Donors don't do watershed just because the parties need generational new blood.

  8. JFree   1 year ago

    Oh - and the main reason elderly politicians are retiring later is precisely because those years and that demographic are where life expectancy has gone up since maybe the 1960's/Medicare.

    Life expectancy for everyone rose with penicillin and the first antibiotics in the late 1940's. Life expectancy for kids rose hugely in the 1960's/1970's with the first rounds of childhood vaccines. But apart from that - and esp since Medicare - the only real life expectancy changes have been for higher income 70-90 year olds.

    1. MrMxyzptlk   1 year ago

      True, but no matter how long you extend human life in the 80s they start to slide mentally. Their are of course exceptions but that doesn't mean we should want people in government offices who should be home collecting social security, working on hobbies and playing with their grandchildren.

      1. JFree   1 year ago

        I agree but power corrupts and cognitive decline is often invisible to the person suffering it.

        Personally I’m in favor of random selection (sortition – similar to juries) not elections. That creates an automatic turnover. Also greatly reduces the power of money because it makes tenure totally unpredictable.

  9. CE   1 year ago

    Why not step aside and make way for Biden's vaunted bench...?

    Which vaunted bench is that?
    Kamala Harris, who laughed off the few responsibilities she was given?
    Pete Buttigieg, who took a vacation instead of addressing a supply chain meltdown?
    Janet Yellen, who presided over the worst inflation in 40 years?
    Gavin Newsom, who managed California into a third world country?
    Gretchen Whitmer, who makes Hillary Clinton look likable and trustworthy?

    1. MrMxyzptlk   1 year ago

      Well, when you only look at theor flaws. I'm sure we can find positive qualities about those people... let's see... um... they convert oxygen into carbon dioxide to feed plants. That's positive.

    2. Kungpowderfinger   1 year ago

      The fucking Democrats’ only hope is to run the shitbag with the most name recognition at the very last minute, so to minimize their exposure to public scrutiny prior to the election.

      The decision could literally be made with mathematical modeling. Maybe Dominion can hook the DNC up again with the product they desperately need.

  10. Spiritus Mundi   1 year ago

    Except he is the PRESIDENT. Not some lame senator or congressman who's aids do all the work and only real job is to vote yes or no. WHO THE FUCK IS RUNNING THE COUNTRY!?

    1. Wizzle Bizzle   1 year ago

      Exactly. For YEARS, Biden's senility has been obvious to everyone who isn't an evangelical Democrat or a Reason reporter. (Same diff)

      Suddenly it's a problem because the barely engaged set got to see it too, stripped of media interference.

      Fuck Joe Biden. Fuck his treasonous puppet masters. Fuck Reason.

    2. Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)   1 year ago

      Biden’s staff of promoted Obama retreads are doing the work, not him. Amd we have three and a half years of results.

  11. Old Smokin' Egg   1 year ago

    Based on my experience with my own relatives who've gone from mild cognitive impairment to full-out dementia, one of the first abilities that one loses is the ability to tell how bad one's memory is. And there's a considerable element of denial, too: when we point out how forgetful they are, they confabulate—"I didn't forget to take my pills from my weekly organizer; I just got them out of the drugstore vials instead."

    It's hard enough to tell someone that the're no longer capable of handling their affairs. Now, suppose that someone is the President, and you're a cabinet officer, or a member of Congress, or someone else who's dependent to some extent on the President's goodwill. If I try to deliver the bad news in a convincing way, will I just wind up on his enemies list?

    What we really need—not just for politicians, but for all of us who've got the specter of senility looming—is some sort of test that we can take at regular intervals, with a score that we can graph versus time, so we can see the downward slope approaching the red zone while we're still capable of realizing what it means.

  12. AT   1 year ago

    It's indicative of a trend among lawmakers that SHE instead opted to cling to power for a little longer.

    FTFY.

    I'm not even going to remark. Someone else already said it much better than me:

    It's pretty obvious Jill Biden does not have her husband’s best interests or well-being at heart. She’s simply trying to hold onto power at this point.

    Maybe it’s time somebody stepped in here.

    This is a monster preying on her own weak and frail husband. Elder abuse doesn’t solely take the form of physical abuse or even verbal emotional beratement.

    Elder abuse, in its simplest terms, involves a trusted person in a relationship that causes harm or distress to an older person. It includes but is not limited to psychological and emotional abuse, neglect, and serious loss of dignity and respect.

    Joe Biden is experiencing all of these things right now. Jill Biden is the primary source of his suffering.

  13. Commenter_XY   1 year ago

    America is fucked, for the time being.

    We have a POTUS with diminished cognitive ability (e.g. feeble)
    We have a V-POTUS who could not manage her way out of an open paper bag
    We have a military, more invested in 'PRIDE' than killing the enemy
    We have have a press that have become ideological propaganda mouthpieces
    We are currently flooding our country with illegal aliens

    America, we are so fucked.

    1. Moderation4ever   1 year ago

      Agreed with the idea, but would point out;

      - the other candidate for Presidency is an incompetent,
      - our Congress is a useless mess that can just barely do its job,
      - our country spends more time on culture wars, both sides, than on real problems,
      - media is more interested in keeping our attention than in telling the real story,

      so yea we are probably fucked.

  14. Moderation4ever   1 year ago

    There is a certain subset of professions where people simple don't want to retire. Politics is one example. In some cases, high level business people. Another is often sports where we see players refuse to retire on their laurels. Working class people are often forced out. People doing physical work can only do that work for so long before their body's force retirement. Other working-class people are expected to retire and that is made clear. Maybe working class is lucky in this way?

    Joe Biden is another example Annie Duke could add in an updated addition of her book titled "Quit". Good read if you have the time.

    1. Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)   1 year ago

      The other candidate for president did it before, and did a pretty good job, unless you’re looking a tit as a far elf to Ron.

      Congress is a mess. We need to cleanse it of democrats and RINOs.

      Stop trying to destroy this country with DEI, Tranny mania, child grooming, and LBTQIAFRSDTL(+=/#$@….. and Americans won’t hav etc fight a culture war to begin with.

      Get all the democrat out of the media and things will get better.

      Your kind will prevent all that, so it’s hard to get unfucked.

  15. fcdbeaa   1 year ago

    Just read a really disturbing piece on substack @hollymathnerd:

    >Even accepting the most dramatic interpretation of January 6—that it was a failed coup attempt—at face value, everyone claiming to vote for Biden because of January 6 is voting to continue an ongoing coup out of anger at a past coup attempt.

    Whomever is making decisions in the White House isn't the president, and isn't the vice president. That someone making the decisions pulled off a successful coup over the US.

    1. Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)   1 year ago

      Round up Biden’s entire inner circle and have them executed for treason. Got to be all of them, it’s the only way to be sure.

      1. markm23   12 months ago

        Treason is aiding and abetting an enemy of the USA. Those that knowingly endorsed a senile idiot for President aren't aiding and abetting our enemies - they ARE our enemies.

  16. CindyF   1 year ago

    Pelosi is not going anywhere as long as she can trade on insider information. She makes millions each year from information she gleams from legislation and regulations she knows are coming.

    Jill Biden is not going anywhere until she has an immunity deal for the entire family and a billion or two in her personal account so she can park the old man with a nurse and jet-set for the next few years.

  17. Anastasia Beaverhausen   1 year ago

    Biden, Trump,. Cornel West, Jill Stein, RFK Jr... ALL are senior citizens. Only we Libertarians chose someone young, vital and vigorous. Vote Chase Oliver!

    1. AT   1 year ago

      Could we have chosen someone young, vital, and vigorous who isn't on Team Pedo?

    2. markm23   12 months ago

      He's about as libertarian as Karl Marx.

  18. Heywood   1 year ago

    If you want evidence that the national politics is all about the selfish desire for money and power, just look at how few of them leave voluntarily.

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