People born on the exact same day as President Joe Biden largely defended the president over his age as concerns around his fitness for office linger in the lead-up to the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election.
The elderly Americans interviewed for the story share a birthday with Biden, born on November 20, 1942.
“He has certainly got his wits about him,” Louise Smoczynski, a retired Wisconsin woman, told The Wall Street Journal.
She supported the Democratic president in 2020 and plans to vote for him again.
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Americans across the political spectrum have voiced concerns about the president, who will be almost 82 when the next elections are held.
Biden was 78 when he took office in January 2021, making him the oldest presidential candidate to be elected. Should he win re-election, he would be 86 at the end of a second term. Nearly 75% of voters, including two-thirds of Democrats, said the chief executive is too old to run again, a survey published this month found.
Members of the liberal establishment and Biden’s colleagues in the Democratic Party have also admitted they are troubled by the president’s age.
But the octogenarian voters, among nearly a dozen Americans born the same day as the president, said Biden is still fit for office, even as they expressed concerns over their own personal health problems.
“A lot of our friends are dying or getting dementia,” Smoczynski added. “I probably shouldn’t bring that up because that makes 80 look terrible.”
The Wisconsin woman, diagnosed about two years ago with endometrial cancer, said it’s “downhill” once a person turns 80 but stressed that technological improvements have positively benefited older Americans.
“People are living longer and living better lives. 80 is the new 60,” she said.
Many Americans who share a birthday with Biden said they were frustrated that people underestimate them because of their age. They said many of them still live busy lives with bustling workdays.
“We’ve all declined, obviously. But you can still be pretty sharp,” Earl Evans, a retired wine salesman who lives in St. Augustine, Fla., said. “The smartest guy in the world could be 80, and it would be a damn shame to not have him in the White House.”
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However, Evans said he was concerned about Biden’s mental and physical health, claiming the president is no longer as sharp as he used to be. Evans, who voted for Donald Trump in 2020, said a similar decline was not “noticeable” in the former president.
Elderly voter Peter Holmes talked to Biden years ago about the fact that they were born the same day when he saw him outside a jewelry store in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
“He was extremely gracious and extremely personable, and even my wife, who should we say was somewhat of a Republican, was charmed,” Holmes, a conservative, said.
“I think there is something to be said about wisdom, and wisdom comes with age, for better or worse,” he added.
Despite his joyful conversation with Biden, Holmes said he did not vote for Biden in 2020 and will likely not support him next year.
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Fox News’ Megan Myers contributed to this report.
