海角大神

Gail Chaddock: 鈥奣he average age of U.S. presidents on Inauguration Day is 55. The last two presidents were the first to take the oath of office in their 70s. Three-quarters of Americans now say that President Biden is too old to serve for a second term. Half now say the same for President Trump. Does age matter?

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Chaddock: 鈥奣his is 鈥淲hy We Wrote This.鈥� I鈥檓 this week鈥檚 guest host, Gail Chaddock. We鈥檙e talking with Linda Feldmann, the Monitor鈥檚 longtime White House correspondent, Washington bureau chief, and host of the newsmakers鈥� Monitor Breakfast. Linda, very glad you could join us.

Linda Feldmann: Hi Gail, glad to be here.

Chaddock: 鈥奓inda, does the Monitor have a policy on reporting on age? If so, how does it affect your reporting and your writing?

Feldmann: The Monitor does have a policy on that. Just to make sure I had it completely straight, I asked our editor, Mark Sappenfield. And he said that we believe that focusing on age has the effect of playing into narratives about age, and we generally don鈥檛 want to do that. But in some cases, like with the story that I wrote the other day about aging politicians, it was important for clarity to specify exactly what kind of age we鈥檙e talking about. So we do use ages when they鈥檙e essential to the story, and then we鈥檙e just using more general characterizations when it鈥檚 not.听

Chaddock: 鈥奩ou鈥檝e covered every presidential election since 1996. Does age matter?

Feldmann: It often doesn鈥檛, because we haven鈥檛 had such old presidents. But both President Trump and Biden now were, in their time, record old presidents. We鈥檙e talking about Joe Biden鈥檚 age more than just about anything else. We had that recent incident with Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, who froze in public, and he鈥檚 older than President Biden. And that, to the great frustration of Democrats, that brought back the question of whether Joe Biden really should be running for re-election. The presidency ages the best of them. We saw Barack Obama go gray. We saw him get wrinkles as a relatively young man. The polls are very strongly urging Biden not to run again. It鈥檚 almost too late for him to decide not to run. And so we鈥檙e going to be hearing a lot about age, between now and election day.

You have, of course, Nikki Haley, who鈥檚 running for the Republican nomination, who wants anybody over the age of 75 running for president to undergo a mental acuity test. She鈥檚 looking at both Donald Trump and Joe Biden. So it isn鈥檛 just the media, or the public who are obsessing about age, it鈥檚 also the Republican field. Vivek Ramaswamy is 38, a lot of people think that鈥檚 too young. The Constitution says the president must be at least 35 years old.听

Chaddock: 鈥奧e have a number of senior politicians. Biden at 80, McConnell at 81, Trump at 77. Is it unusual to have this sort of critical mass of senior politicians at the same time?

Feldmann: It is. It鈥檚 unprecedented. And I should add that, in some ways, we shouldn鈥檛 be all that surprised. People are living longer than ever before. There are plenty of examples of people continuing to work well into their 80s. I mean, look at Chuck Grassley, senator from Iowa since 1981. He won re-election and immediately filed to run again in 2028. So he鈥檚 90, and if he does run again in 鈥�28, and fulfills that term, he鈥檒l be over 100 by the time he finishes his term. The thing about the Senate, it鈥檚 dubbed 鈥渢he most exclusive nursing home in the country.鈥� You know, that鈥檚 a joke, but there鈥檚 something to that. I mean, senators have legions of aids. They have people scurrying about getting them anything they could possibly need, putting out press releases, so they don鈥檛 need to be completely sharp to continue to serve in the Senate.听

I should also point out that Nancy Pelosi, she and her top deputies were all in their 80s, as the top leadership of the Democrats in the House. And they decided as a group to step down from leadership. Not to resign their seats, but to stop being in leadership. She even stated that the decision to step aside was for the purpose of elevating the next generation. Congresswoman Pelosi has said she鈥檚 now running for re-election at the age of 83, which, honestly, doesn鈥檛 surprise anybody. She鈥檚 very vigorous. She鈥檚 mentally sharp. There鈥檚 no reason for her not to run and continue her role as an important representative of her state and a key spokesperson for her party.

Chaddock: 鈥奓inda, you mentioned earlier, with reference to senators, that they have staff. What do you see the Biden team accomplishing, in accommodating his needs?聽聽

Feldmann: The Biden White House is very buttoned up. He has a tight team around him. They just don鈥檛 leak. They will often speak for him, and if he says something that might come across as off key, they will immediately put out a statement correcting what the president has said.

We look at his schedule every day. They put it out the night before. He usually doesn鈥檛 do events before 10 in the morning. He sometimes will have a pretty light public schedule, whether that鈥檚 by his request or if that鈥檚 his team preemptively protecting him.听聽

There鈥檚 this narrative around President Biden that he鈥檚 almost a puppet of his team. When Ron Klain was his chief of staff, Republicans would refer to him as Prime Minister Klain. People just jump on every public sign they can get that he鈥檚 not mentally sharp. If the President trips going up the steps of Air Force One, that is captured on video, and replayed mercilessly, particularly by conservative media. There鈥檚 this whole narrative that he鈥檚 full-on senile, which, honestly, I just don鈥檛 see. I serve in the presidential pool. I travel with President Biden from time to time, have seen him up close at the back of Air Force One chatting off the record with the pool. I have interacted with Joe Biden in person. He was sharp, he was personable. Joe Biden is a people person, he loves to interact with everybody. It鈥檚 in some ways I鈥檓 sure difficult for him to have to be so guarded in public.听

Chaddock: 鈥奩ou also saw President Trump up close. The two men are about three years apart, and yet most of the focus on age is directed at President Biden and not at President Trump. Do you think there鈥檚 any reason for that?

Feldmann: Well, part of it is just how they come across in public. So Joe Biden definitely moves like an old man, and he doesn鈥檛 speak fluidly. But he never has. As you well know, Gail, he鈥檚 always struggled with public speaking. He had a childhood stutter, which he still contends with. He鈥檚 famously known as a gaffe machine.听

Donald Trump also has a very particular way of speaking, a very circuitous way of speaking, but just in terms of his physical presence, he comes across as more vigorous and forceful than Joe Biden does. Also, Donald Trump isn鈥檛 president. I mean, there鈥檚 nothing that compares to being in the presidency of the United States. The entire world is watching. It just makes the age issue probably more important than it should be.

Franklin Foer鈥檚 new book on the first two years of the Biden presidency describes a President Biden who鈥檚 very engaged, behind the scenes with policymaking. One of the headlines out of that was that Joe Biden, quote, 鈥済ets tired from time to time.鈥� But my reaction was: 鈥淲ell, don鈥檛 we all?鈥� And even on President Biden鈥檚 recent trip to the other side of the world, he gave this press conference in Hanoi, which honestly didn鈥檛 go all that well. And he, at one point, he ended it by saying, it鈥檚 time to go to bed, which, I鈥檓 thinking: 鈥淚f I鈥檇 been on that trip, I would have had the same reaction.鈥�

You know, if anybody asks him about his age, his answer is always something to the effect of: 鈥淲atch me.鈥� This is a determined man. He鈥檚 determined for Donald Trump not to become president again, and I think that is what animates him, as well as his devotion to his family more than anything else.

Chaddock: 鈥奩ou know, at your urging, I actually read Franklin Foer鈥檚 鈥淭he Last Politician.鈥� There鈥檚 a really interesting line in it: 鈥淎 press corps suffering from post traumatic stress disorder welcomed the relative professionalism of the Biden communications operation. With such favorable treatment, there was little rush for the White House to subject Biden to a ceremonial grilling, which would present endless opportunities for unintentional headlines.鈥� When Trump supporters see that soft coverage and compare it with what their guy received in the opening months, does it look unfair to them? How do you process that?聽

Feldmann: So it may be true that in the very early going, there was a bit of a honeymoon period. There always is with a new president. And with Joe Biden, for sure, there was a sharp return to normality. His press secretary holds daily briefings, which the Trump press teams stopped doing for about nine months. Those briefings are an important daily opportunity for reporters to ask questions, both on the record and on camera. But the Biden presidency is also unusual in that he鈥檚 held fewer formal press conferences and sat for fewer interviews than most of his modern predecessors. That may reflect an effort by his team to shield him from potential gaffes, but at the same time, he takes far more questions from reporters in impromptu settings than his predecessors did. For example, when he鈥檚 on the South Lawn walking to or from Marine One, or at Joint Base Andrews walking to or from Air Force One, he鈥檒l take questions, which he may or may not answer.

Chaddock: 鈥奍鈥檓 looking back before your time to JFK, John F. Kennedy, the youngest elected American president. And yet we find out later with books and the release of medical records that he was dealing with very serious physical problems all along. Yet the press largely described him as, you know, vigorous, active. Did they know, and just not report it? What do you feel that a journalist owes the public in terms of reporting on presidential health?聽

Feldmann: Right, so with John F. Kennedy, this was before Watergate, when the relationship between the press and the president was completely different. They were kind of a club. Basically a men鈥檚 club. And the press knew all kinds of stuff. They knew that John F. Kennedy was having affairs. And I鈥檓 not sure if they knew the health issues he was dealing with, but they certainly knew more than they reported.听

Ever since Watergate, that level of trust between reporters and the president has gone forever. One thing that鈥檚 common between both Republican and Democratic presidents is they both are very, very leery of the press. With Joe Biden, he is continuing all the conventions of presidential coverage. I think all we can do as reporters is be fair, report accurately what he鈥檚 saying and doing, and not try to cover for him in any way, or be unfairly mean, or make things up.

Chaddock: 鈥奍 know you don鈥檛 cover the Supreme Court, but your presidents suggest Supreme Court nominees every once in a while. And think of some of the justices that have really distinguished themselves at very old ages: Oliver Wendell Holmes, retired at 90, Louis Brandeis at 82.听

Feldmann: Well, the Supreme Court question around age is very tricky. We, of course, had the example of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who served until the age of 87, at which point she passed away. People are perhaps regretting that she didn鈥檛 retire while President Obama was in office so that he could nominate her replacement. Instead, Donald Trump had that opportunity, and put in Amy Coney Barrett, who then contributed to the majority that overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that established nationwide legal abortion.听聽

Should justices have a mandatory retirement age? I actually did a little research on this and I discovered that most states have retirement ages, typically, 70, 72, 75. And this made me laugh: in North Dakota, a judge who does not retire at 73 loses all earned retirement benefits. So there鈥檚 an incentive to retire at 73.听

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Chaddock: 鈥奓inda, thank you for joining us for this podcast. And thanks to our listeners. You can find more, including our show notes, at csmonitor.com/WhyWeWroteThis. This episode was hosted by me, Gail Chaddock. Edited and produced by Clay Collins, Jingnan Peng, and Mackenzie Farkus. Tim Malone and Alyssa Britton were our engineers, with original music by Noel Flatt. Produced by the 海角大神 Science Monitor. Copyright 2023.