For too long, questions about the age of our elected officials have been treated as impolite at best and outright discriminatory at worst.
But when you govern the country from Congress or from the White House, age isn’t just a number. Recent events have demonstrated that a majority of Americans are right to be concerned about elected officials who hang on to their office into their 80s and 90s.
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A news story last week by The New York Times shed light on the extent of former President Joe Biden’s decline and the frantic efforts of his inner circle to conceal it. According to The Times, Biden decided to run for another term in 2023, without deliberating with his allies and family. Around the same time, the president was already making donors nervous with meandering speeches. His aides made him use teleprompters for even minor appearances, moved meetings to suit his moods, and surrounded him as he walked to cover up his shuffle.
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The Times’ reporting here was stellar, but it was a year too late. The Wall Street Journal scrutinized Biden’s fitness in a June news story, before he dropped out of the race. The White House blasted the story as a smear. Democrats slung arrows at anyone who dared object to the president’s pursuit of a second term, and a passive Washington press corps didn’t press the matter. Biden’s disastrous debate performance against now- President Donald Trump revealed the depths of the Democratic Party’s deception.
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Concerns about age run deeper than the presidency. Too many people stay in office even as declines in their physical health and mental acuity interfere with or impede their public service. U.S. Rep Kay Granger, a well-regarded Republican from Fort Worth, announced last year she wouldn’t run for reelection. But Granger, 82, was essentially retired already. She missed 279 House votes in 2024. The preceding year, she missed only 32.
Granger’s family said she has been “having some dementia issues,” and her office referenced “unforeseen health challenges.” Yet none of this was disclosed to her constituents or the American public until The Dallas Express published a story about Granger’s whereabouts.
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Perhaps there is no more convincing case for age limits than U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who died in 2023 at age 90. The Democrat was the Senate’s oldest member and did not give up her office despite her visible frailty and dementia issues.
The transition to a new White House administration should not assuage concerns about age. On Monday, Trump became the oldest U.S. president on inauguration day. He will be 82 by the time his second term expires, and no one can predict how he will age in the coming four years.
An overwhelming 79% of Americans support age limits for federal elected officials, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center poll. That support is bipartisan, with nearly equal backing from voters of both parties.
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Congress should look in the mirror and listen.
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