The age-old question of "how old is too old for a presidential candidate?" has taken on increasing urgency as we barrel toward November with two frontrunners who are getting up there in years. Now, according to a new poll, an "overwhelming majority" of Americans say that the incumbent, President Biden, is too advanced in age to serve a second term, although they don't consider former President Trump to be a spring chicken, either. Per the latest survey ABC News conducted with Ipsos' KnowledgePanel, 86% of respondents think the 81-year-old Biden is too old to run the White House again. Compare that with 62% who say Trump, 77, is similarly too old to do the same.
Meanwhile, 59% feel both candidates are too old. ABC notes that its September poll with the Washington Post showed 74% of respondents thought Biden was too old to serve again, while 49% said that about Trump. The current poll was conducted Feb. 9-10 among a random sampling of just over 500 US adults—after a report was issued by special counsel Robert Hur on Biden's handling of classified documents, which noted that Biden presented himself during questioning as an "elderly man with a poor memory."
Politico notes that that poll "could be the first sign of the report's impact on voters' perception of the president." Biden's camp has been pushing back hard on the age question since Hur's report was released. On Sunday, Mitch Landrieu, the co-chair of Biden's reelection campaign, called the assertion that Biden is too old to run again "a bucket of BS that's so deep, your boots will get stuck in it." So how old is too old? Peter Baker tries to analyze that question for the New York Times, including with a look back at past presidential candidates who faced similar challenges. (More President Biden 2024 stories.)
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