Note cards and shorter stairs: How Biden’s campaign is addressing his age

When he didn’t attend a dinner during the NATO summit in Lithuania earlier this month, aides said he was preparing for meetings and a major speech the next day and noted he’d already been overseas for four days. He was a no-show at a dinner with his counterparts in Bali last fall.

Asked about the missed dinners, White House aides said his absence had nothing to do with fatigue. They said Biden must tend to domestic issues many time zones away even when he is overseas. In Bali, they pointed to his efforts to marshal a unified allied response in the middle of the night when it appeared a Russian missile might have struck Poland as proof that he wasn’t drained by his travels.

In any case, said Jonathan Finer, a deputy national security adviser at the White House, “The dinners at these events are about relationship building. He has done the work over a long period of time to build these relationships outside of the summit. So, it’s less important for him to spend downtime with the other leaders than it is for people who are newer to the scene or have not invested in building these relationships.”

Other age-compensating measures are logistical, and probably familiar to many who’ve reached a certain stage in life: extra-large font on his teleprompter and note cards to remind him of the points he wants to make in meetings.

Republicans see Biden’s age as a vulnerability they intend to exploit. Trump has posted video of Biden falling off his bike and tripping during the commencement ceremony. In private meetings, Biden’s political operation has strategized about the best ways to deflect that line of attack, a former White House official said. Allies floated the idea of throwing a big 80th birthday bash, for instance, last November to show he was openly embracing the milestone rather than shying away from it, a person familiar with the matter said. But Biden opted for continuing his tradition of a small family gathering with Jeni’s ice cream. 

Biden has also started joking about his age in self-deprecating ways, while emphasizing that with longevity comes a certain life wisdom. Advisers see that as a selling point they’ll emphasize throughout the campaign.

“Joe Biden’s age is his superpower, and as I’ve seen firsthand, his fastball is as good as ever,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, the movie mogul and co-chair of Biden’s campaign.

It doesn’t hurt that Biden may be heading toward a rematch with Trump. Trump’s own fitness came into question during his term when he walked haltingly down a ramp at West Point and used two hands to drink a glass of water. A physical exam released in 2019 showed that Trump was clinically obese at 243 pounds, though in “very good” health overall, according to his doctor.

“As someone who just turned 80, I strongly believe that we need someone younger, whether it’s on the Democratic side or the Republican side,” said Dan Coats, a former director of national intelligence in the Trump administration who once served with Biden in the Senate. “The weight of the world falls on the shoulders of the president, and right now, we have two disabled presidents,” Coats added, referring to Biden and Trump. “Age plays a major factor in this, and people have to think about what the next generation will provide.”

Running for president is exhausting even for the spryest of candidates. Rare are those who make it through the gantlet unscathed. Biden largely escaped the ordeal during the 2020 campaign because Covid-19 limited most in-person events. Now, incumbency affords him conveniences that ease the burden of the campaign trail: no serious primary challenge, helicopters and motorcades that whisk him from place to place and ample support staff 24 hours a day. 

Biden gets the most attentive health care imaginable, and his annual physicals have not revealed serious health concerns. Nonetheless, his physician, Kevin O’Connor, is always observing him “like a hawk, whether he wants it or not,” according to one close adviser.

Still, advisers dismiss the idea that he’s encased in bubble wrap, insulated from the job’s demands. They cite instances of Biden getting awakened to deal with a fresh crisis; plowing through briefing papers and making hand notes in margins; and rousing his staff during long flights home on Air Force One to talk business. 

Around 7 or 8 p.m., aides leave him with a couple of hundred pages of reading material and then provide updates before 7:30 a.m.

Stefanie Feldman, the White House staff secretary, describes a moment during the marathon flight home from Biden’s meetings on the NATO trip when he unexpectedly came back to the staff cabin. 

Aides were “passed out from exhaustion,” she said, and “the president came out and wanted to thank everyone for their work. I was kicking people to wake them up and engage with the president, who wanted to engage with his staff. If only I had the energy of an 80-year-old President Biden.”

Marty Walsh, the former secretary of labor, recalled an instance in 2021 when he was riding with Biden to an event at a Hummer plant in Michigan, and the president began dictating revisions to his planned speech off the top of his head.

“I thought to myself, ‘Wow, I wish more people could see this,’” he said. 

“The president isn’t falling down every day, for crying out loud,” Walsh continued. “If you’ve ever given him a hug, you’re going to feel the man is solid. He’s in good shape.”

In a social media age when presidential slip-ups are grist for viral videos, Biden’s advisers recognize he has little room for error. Any president can forget a name or place, mangle a sentence or tumble over a tripping hazard. And they have. With Biden, displays of frailty are bound to get more scrutiny given the propensity of many voters to believe he shouldn’t run again.

Advisers recognize this dynamic as well as the political cost of the next awkward moment.

They gave a collective groan when Biden fell at the Air Force Academy, knowing the episode wouldn’t soon be forgotten. It turns out the sandbag had been camouflaged so that it would blend in, making it easier to miss, a senior White House aide said.

“It happened in seconds,” another aide said, “but it’s going to be in front of us for months and maybe years.”

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