Granite State Democrats like U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster continue to insist President Joe Biden is fit to serve another term. But polls show the vast majority of Americans disagree.
Last week, an NBC News poll found that 76 percent of Americans said they had concerns about Biden having the necessary mental and physical health to serve a second term as president.
On Sunday, an IPSOS-ABC News poll reported that 86 percent of Americans think the 81-year-old Biden is too old for another term. Among independents, it’s a whopping 91 percent.
However, among the members of New Hampshire’s federal delegation, confidence in Biden remains at 100 percent. That’s even after the Department of Justice special counsel reported he was “an elderly man with poor memory” who couldn’t recall when he was vice president or what year his son, Beau, died of brain cancer.
(Biden has also repeatedly and incorrectly claimed Beau Biden died while serving in Iraq.)
All four Democrats refused to answer questions from NHJournal about their view of Biden’s age and mental acuity. However, Kuster told CNN that after the delegation’s Jan. 31 meeting with Biden, they “were chatting with each other about Biden’s impressive command of the issue,” the network reported.
“It’s like, ‘No, he’s fine,’” Kuster said. “Most people don’t get an hour with him. He’s sharp. He’s doing fine.”
That’s a claim most of Kuster’s’ constituents are likely to reject. Certainly, most Americans have.
“It’s a huge problem,” Rich Thau of the nonpartisan message-testing company Engagious told The Wall Street Journal. “I have multiple people in every focus group who will mention that they don’t think the president has all of his faculties.”
And Democratic strategist James Carville says Biden’s decision to turn down the earned media opportunity of the pre-Super Bowl interview on CBS is a sign the people around the president have concerns, too.
“It’s the biggest television audience, not even close, and you get a chance to do a 20, 25-minute interview on that day, and you don’t do it. That’s a kind of sign that the staff or yourself doesn’t have much confidence in you. There’s no other way to read this,” Carville said.
Even Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016, says concerns about Biden’s age and ability to do the job are legitimate.
“I talked to people in the White House all the time, and you know, they know it’s an issue. But as I like to say, ‘Look, it’s a legitimate issue,’” Clinton told MSNBC. “It’s a legitimate issue for Trump, who’s only [a few] years younger, right? So it’s an issue.”
If Biden wins a second term as Kuster and her colleagues hope, he would serve until 2029, at which time he would be 86 years old.
