Invoice Murphy, an 80-year-old retired veterinarian in suburban Phoenix, typically blanks on names he might as soon as summon with ease, so he has empathy for 81-year-old President Biden. However he winced when he watched Mr. Biden defend his psychological sharpness at a information convention, solely to combine up the presidents of Egypt and Mexico. Mr. Murphy, a Republican, believes Mr. Biden is lower than one other time period.
Mary Meyer, an 83-year-old avid hiker and traveler who lives within the excessive desert north of Phoenix, took difficulty with a special counsel’s report that characterised him as aged and forgetful — the same assumption that strangers on the grocery store typically make about her capabilities.
“I take a look at him as a peer,” mentioned Ms. Meyer, who plans to vote for Mr. Biden. “I do know what he’s able to. I do know it’s not as dangerous as everyone thinks.”
To voters of their 70s and 80s, the renewed questions swirling around Mr. Biden’s age and health resonated in deeply private methods. The particular counsel report cleared him of felony prices in his dealing with of labeled paperwork however described him as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
A few of Mr. Biden’s generational friends and supporters insisted the characterization was nothing greater than a calculated political ploy to undercut his marketing campaign, and play on perceived weakness. Many famous their very own vibrant and busy lives, crammed with psychological and bodily exercise.
The criticism of Mr. Biden as forgetful and incapable of serving echoed slights and discrimination that they had felt. Others considered their very own struggles as they hit their 80s, and questioned any 80-year-old’s capacity to guide the nation.
They mentioned they knew what it felt wish to be drained after a two-hour drive, to battle to recall names and details that after got here simply, to really feel cautious climbing up a ladder or mounting a bicycle. Republican and Democratic voters alike mentioned they might not assist however empathize with Mr. Biden’s verbal slips, and with the crush of judgment that adopted them.
Regardless of efforts from the White Home to discredit the portrait of Mr. Biden as forgetful, some voters nervous about how a president their age would, within the years to return, proceed to answer the stress of wars within the Center East and Ukraine, deal with the toil of marketing campaign rallies or endure draining in a single day flights to summits world wide.
“What’s it going to be like when he will get a name in the course of the evening that there’s been a bombing, or there’s been one other taking pictures?” requested Jan Kallheim, 83, a retired nurse from Mankato, Minn., who spends her winters in Arizona and describes herself as a conservative.
Surveys present that many citizens share her issues. In a New York Times/Siena poll of six battleground states last fall, greater than 70 p.c of voters agreed with an announcement that Mr. Biden, 81, is simply too previous to be an efficient president, although voters 65 and over had been barely much less prone to decide him as too previous. Greater than 60 p.c of all voters polled didn’t assume he had the psychological sharpness to be president. On that question, voters 65 and older were evenly divided.
On Friday, The Occasions talked to almost two dozen older voters about their ideas on age and the presidency, and acquired written responses on the subject from round 150 extra. The responses, whereas not scientific, appeared to indicate that few of Mr. Biden’s supporters had been swayed by the particular counsel report, or his efficiency on the White Home press convention responding to it. Those that nervous about Mr. Biden’s age had already felt concern.
Lots of the older Democrats and unbiased voters who responded mentioned they had been extra perturbed about Mr. Trump’s temperament than about Mr. Biden’s age.
On Friday, Ms. Kallheim and a gaggle of golf-loving, mah-jongg-playing, largely conservative mates from the Midwest had been ending dinner at a Panera within the Solar Metropolis space, a suburban Phoenix mecca for retirees and snowbirds. There, residents zip round in golf carts from tee occasions to woodworking programs to the lap pool.
The chums noticed the upcoming election as a distressing selection between what they referred to as “grandpa and loopy.” They mentioned they’d quite write in Republicans Nikki Haley or Liz Cheney than vote for Mr. Biden or Mr. Trump.
Requested whether or not they needed youthful options, all mentioned sure.
“You don’t bounce again,” mentioned Ms. Kallheim, who tends to vote Republican however mentioned she would by no means vote for Mr. Trump. “I don’t care how bodily lively you’re, should you take capsules or not — your acuity at 80 isn’t nearly as good as it’s at 60. There’s deterioration.”
“I don’t assume like I did once I was youthful,” mentioned Lorene Bleess, 85, who just lately had to surrender pickleball after an sickness.
However different voters of their 70s and 80s mentioned they nonetheless felt as mentally agile as they did of their 50s and 60s, and had few issues about Mr. Biden’s age. They identified that politicians of all ages — together with Mr. Trump — make verbal flubs and neglect names and dates.
“I’ve been able the place I used to be requested one thing on the spot and I’ve stumbled right here and there,” mentioned Beverly Edmond, 74, a Democrat and retired college administrator in Lithonia, Ga. “It occurs, however it isn’t a mirrored image of mind or functionality. This has been blown out of proportion.”
To underscore that time, after the particular counsel’s unflattering description of Mr. Biden, Democrats circulated movies exhibiting Mr. Trump, mixing up Ms. Haley with Nancy Pelosi, and Mike Johnson, 52, the speaker of the Home, mixing up Israel and Iran.
Some older voters mentioned it was unfair to evaluate Mr. Biden solely by his age. However in an angrily polarized and youth-obsessed tradition, they weren’t stunned to see commentators dismiss Mr. Biden as “doddering” and “out to lunch,” or so many citizens deem him “just too old” in opinion surveys.
Ann Marie Cunningham, 86, a retired trainer and social employee in Chicago, mentioned that some criticism of Mr. Biden’s age flowed from a widespread bias in opposition to older folks. When she was working at a nursing residence in her early 70s, she mentioned a brand new supervisor pushed out lots of the older employees, together with her.
“Being older is a legal responsibility,” Ms. Cunningham mentioned.
She makes use of a walker to get round her excessive rise however says that her thoughts is as clear as ever. Ms. Cunningham, a registered Democrat who considers herself an unbiased, has marveled at Mr. Biden’s bodily health effectively into his 80s.
“He rides a motorbike!” she mentioned. “I couldn’t trip a motorbike if my life trusted it.”
Nonetheless, she has observed his verbal lapses. When Ms. Cunningham was a trainer at a Catholic faculty in Chicago for 35 years, she had college students who suffered from a stutter, like Mr. Biden.
“Generally he’ll neglect a phrase or get issues garbled,” she mentioned, which she believes has to do together with his early speech difficulties. “That’s not straightforward.”
Mr. Biden was not Ms. Cunningham’s first selection for president. She voted for him, with somewhat reluctance, however has been happy together with his achievements in workplace, particularly reducing prices on prescriptions for older folks, and mentioned she would vote for him once more.
However Harry W. Hepburn III, an 82-year-old clock repairman in Harrison, Maine, sees Mr. Biden’s age as a threat that imperils the nation. Mr. Hepburn has empathy for the slip-ups that include age and will get bothered when he sometimes forgets a reputation, “when issues used to return to me so fast, like boom-boom-boom.”
A registered Republican, Mr. Hepburn voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 and 2020 and plans to vote for him once more in November due to his efforts to limit immigration and his enterprise sense, he mentioned. He doesn’t assume age has but taken a toll on Mr. Trump.
Mr. Hepburn stays lively by tossing a soccer together with his grandchildren and nonetheless shovels snow off his porch roof. He mentioned he feels distinctive for 82, however doesn’t consider the identical is true of Mr. Biden.
“I believe he has misplaced his capacity to assume on his toes,” Mr. Hepburn mentioned, whereas persevering with to tinker with a clock in his workshop on Friday afternoon. “He scares me. Watch how he walks — he walks like a man who doesn’t have it anymore.” (The White House report of Mr. Biden’s 2023 physical described him as a “wholesome, vigorous 80-year-old man.”)
Even some Democratic supporters, like Sarah Shankman, an 80-year-old novelist in Santa Rosa, Calif., say they want Mr. Biden would depart the stage. Ms. Shankman in contrast Mr. Biden’s re-election bid with how Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg resisted calls to retire from the Supreme Court docket throughout the Obama administration, solely to die and get replaced by a Trump nominee.
“I believe his coronary heart is in the correct place, however I believe his ego has gotten in the best way,” she mentioned. “I believe Biden is having a really tough time simply coming to face the inevitable.”
Opinion surveys recommend Mr. Biden’s older supporters have caught with him at the same time as he has misplaced assist amongst younger voters upset about points just like the struggle in Gaza.
“All of us have deficits as a teen and deficits as we age,” mentioned Linda Georgeson, a 74-year-old retiree and Democrat, of Bayfield, Wis.
As a court docket administrator, Ms. Georgeson dominated on instances involving competency and abuse of older folks, and got here away believing that age doesn’t essentially decide psychological acuity.
After studying the particular counsel’s report, Ms. Georgeson felt insulted “on behalf of all older folks,” she mentioned. “I believe it’s time on this nation we understood everyone’s going to age.”
Halina Bennet contributed reporting.