President Biden is growing “a little older and a little slower” in the final days of his presidency, according to a New York Times report.
“This is the twilight of Mr. Biden’s presidency, the final days of the final chapter of an epic half-century political journey that has had more than its share of twists and turns. Time is catching up with Mr. Biden,” correspondents Peter Baker and Zolan Kanno-Youngs wrote.
The NYT report continued, “He looks a little older and a little slower with each passing day. Aides say he remains plenty sharp in the Situation Room, calling world leaders to broker a cease-fire in Lebanon or deal with the chaos of Syria’s rebellion. But it is hard to imagine that he seriously thought he could do the world’s most stressful job for another four years.”
In the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, they reported how Biden’s “fragility appeared painfully clear to those traveling with him” over the last month.
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“After speaking for seven minutes on a day of draining humidity, a blue shirt hanging loosely over his frame, he turned to slowly shuffle away down a dirt path as several people in the audience not used to seeing him up close said they held their breath, worried that he would trip. (Aides said his gait was no more unsteady than usual,)” Baker and Kanno-Youngs wrote.
They described allies commenting that Biden “maintained a light schedule at times and sometimes mumbled, making him hard to understand.” His recent trip to the African country Angola reportedly raised several concerns.
“During an arrival ceremony on his trip to Angola this month, on the day after a long, tiring transoceanic flight that would have taxed any octogenarian, President João Lourenço suddenly clutched Mr. Biden’s arm to help guide him up a step,” the Times reported.
“When Mr. Biden visited the National Museum of Slavery that afternoon, he did not actually enter the main building to view the exhibitions; instead, artifacts were brought outside to show him, which two people familiar with the planning attributed to fear that the steep stairs would be too much of a challenge,” it continued. “(The White House denied that the stairs were a concern and said he was not brought inside for scheduling and logistical reasons.)”
Despite this issue over his age, Democrats reportedly said that they “wish he would use his position more assertively in the time he has left.”
“He ought to be dramatically pushing until the last day on the things that he represented to seal his legacy and the memory of it in the American public because it is so diametrically opposite to what Trump is bringing into the White House,” MSNBC host Rev. Al Sharpton told the Times.
The article acknowledged, as some critics have recently, that Trump has been seen as more presidential in the public eye than Biden.
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“Like other lame-duck presidents, he is fading from the political scene, all but leaving the stage before the final curtain,” it read. “While Mr. Trump already dominates the conversation more than incoming presidents typically do, making policy pronouncements and huddling with world leaders without waiting to take office, the president actually occupying the White House has become a national afterthought.”
The New York Times, particularly Peter Baker, has been pressed on how it covered Biden’s age and health leading up to the election. In September, Baker acknowledged the difficulty of reporting on the issue.
“It’s very personal. Anybody who’s had a father or mother whose age, and you talk to them by taking away their keys, these are not easy issues. That’s a sense of what the country is going through with Biden,” the Times correspondent said. “And how do you write something in the appropriate way, balanced and yet tough… We wrote these stories, aired these stories repeatedly over the last couple years. The editors, our writers got massive complaints from the White House about it. The campaign took after the reporters who did focus on this. And yet it was our responsibility to do so.”
