President Joe Biden forfeited his reelection bid, now making former President Donald Trump the oldest presidential nominee of a major political party, and now Democrats expect Vice President Kamala Harris to attack his age.
Prior to Biden dropping out, his campaign team worked to sooth voters’ concerns that the 81-year-old president was too old, too frail, and too weak to run the country for another four years.
Even before his disastrous debacle at the first presidential debate, which prompted calls for him to end his reelection bid, Biden released an ad in March that looked to prove that all he had accomplished shouldn’t be negated by his age.
“Look, I’m not a young guy,” Biden said. “That’s no secret. But here’s the deal, I understand how to get things done for the American people.”
But now with Kamala Harris, who is 20 years younger than Trump, as the frontrunner to replace Biden, the campaign team will likely play into voters’ concerns as Trump is just three years younger than Biden.
“She can make the issue of age and readiness to serve a four-year term a liability for Donald Trump,” Ben Wikler, Wisconsin’s Democratic Party chairman, told reporters. “This is a reset in the presidential election.”
However, while Trump is 78 years old, his campaign team has amplified the strength and rigor he showed when a bullet shot him in the ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The photo of Trump with blood across his face while pumping his fist in the air garnered praise from some of the most unexpected sources. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg called Trump’s actions “the most badass things [he] has ever seen in his life.”
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Trump’s campaign never honed in on Biden’s age. Instead, it focused on his countless gaffs and his record, framing him to be incompetent. According to press secretary Karoline Levitt, they are going to continue to take this same approach with Harris.
“It’s not about age, it’s about competence, and Kamala Harris has proven to be just as incompetent and ineffective as Joe Biden,” Levitt told the Wall Street Journal. “President Trump is stronger than ever, as proven by his relentless work ethic and remarkable resolve following the gruesome attempt on his life.”
