Media prioritize age after Biden drops out

Having successfully ousted President Joe Biden as the nominee via a textbook coup, Democrats have already turned their energy back toward taking down their Republican opponent, Donald Trump. And with Biden out of the race, the media and their left-wing allies have decided that age suddenly matters once again.

Corporate media were already dishonestly peddling the narrative that Trump’s age was just as much of a concern, if not more of one, than Biden’s. Just a few weeks ago, The Washington Post ran a piece on Trump’s birthday headlined “Donald Trump, potential future oldest president, turns 78.” It was a hard sell given that, should Trump win a second term, he would be 82 upon leaving office — the age Biden will turn this year.

But after Biden dropped out of the race with no explanation, the media began regurgitating the talking point at full throttle.

“Trump is now the oldest nominee that we’ve ever seen in U.S. presidential history,” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said.

“[Kamala Harris is] running against the oldest nominee for president of the United States in American history,” Bakari Sellers said on CNN. “I mean, the man is nearly 80 years old, and so the question is, can he serve another four years? I’m not sure he can.”

Sellers also posted on X that Trump is the “oldest nominee in American political history,” which was then reposted by left-wing agitator Elie Mystal.

Axios blared that “Biden’s exit makes Trump the oldest nominee in U.S. history.”

Now that they don’t have to cover for Biden’s cognitive decline, left-wing media are making an obvious play to draw a false equivalence to Trump and his age.

But it’s dishonest to frame Biden’s problem as simply one of “age.” Rather, Americans have seen evidence of a serious and likely clinical decline in the president’s cognitive function, evidenced by the president’s repeated physical and verbal fumbles, his public displays of confusion, and the White House’s unwillingness to let him appear publicly without major guardrails. Biden’s age has surely been a contributing factor, but his cognitive decline is ultimately what horrifies American voters.

Before Biden and Trump, Ronald Reagan faced mounting opposition from Democrats over his age. Then-Rep. Tony Coelho, who also served as a surrogate for Walter Mondale, told reporters that “Reagan showed his age” and that “the age issue is in the campaign now.”

But Reagan managed to dispel any fears about his age when, during the second presidential debate, he was asked whether he had any doubt that he would be able to “function” in a crisis. Reagan assured the nation he could handle the job before turning his attention toward the age issue.

“I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience,” he said.

It was a well-received line and Reagan went on to sweep the electoral college.

On the other hand, debilitating medical conditions have affected presidents much younger. Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in 1919 at the age of 62 that left him largely incapacitated for the remainder of his presidency. His wife, Edith, acted as the puppet master behind the scenes, hiding Wilson’s condition for two years.

Age alone has never been the fundamental issue. It’s mental acuity and cognitive ability that matter. Trump, who is campaigning around the country and just delivered a 90-minute address at the Republican National Convention after surviving an assassination attempt, is not exhibiting the same behavior as Biden, who has not been seen for days.

If the media really cared about presidential age and cognition, they’d demand that the oldest president in history — who just dropped out after his serious mental decline became too hard to hide — resign immediately.

Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2