Obscuring Biden's age - with a short flight of stairs

Joe Biden

This is how Biden's age will be obscured - with shorter airplane stairs 

 

Petter J Larsson 

 

Updated 00:07 | Published 2023-07-26 23:57  

 

News

 

The Joe Biden campaign's worst nightmare is that the president falls again.  

 

Now the 80-year-old's staff is revealing how his age will be obscured before the election - including through a shorter flight of stairs. 

 

- You can't be careful enough, says an adviser to NBC.  

US President Joe Biden, 80, hopes to be re-elected next year. He would then be a record 86 years old at the end of his second term. The second oldest sitting US president was Ronald Reagan, who was 77 at the end of his time in power.  

 

Now comes testimony from Biden's staff - who fear that his age will receive too much focus during the election campaign. According to several of the president's advisers, whom NBC News spoke to, there are a series of measures that must be taken to make Biden appear younger.  

 

- You can't be careful enough, says one of them to the American television channel.  

 

The Democrats' worst fear is that Biden falls again. After addressing students at the US Air Force Academy in June, the president tripped over a sandbag and fell to the ground. 

 

- The Democratic Party needs to be sensitive to what people are saying about Biden and the concerns they have about his age, an anonymous congressional Democrat told NBC. 

 

- I received so many text messages after the president fell that my phone blew up. People just said "wow, this is so bad".  

Biden tripped after a speech to students at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP  

 

"Like a Grandparent" 

 

In an April NBC poll, 44 percent of Democratic voters did not think Biden would run. The most common justifications for it included words such as "too old", "age", "younger", "mental health" and "ineffective". 

 

- It cannot be denied that he is 80 years old, said an anonymous democratic politician at the time. 

 

- It worries you. You want to try to make sure he doesn't fall. You want to protect him. It feels like I'm around a grandparent with whom you just want to cherish the last little time you have left. 

 

In March 2021, Biden fell on the airplane stairs to Air Force One, and was heavily mocked by opponents. Last June, a bike ride on the beach in Delaware ended with the president falling - right in front of a crowd.

 

- I got stuck with my foot, Biden said then. 

 

Called for dead colleague  

 

In the past year, he has also confused Ukraine and Iraq, called the town of Rolling Fork in Mississippi "Rolling Stone" and at a press conference in the White House called out for congressman Jackie Walorski - who died in a car accident the month before.

 

"Physically, he's quite frail and he falls off his bike, or whatever," says a former Western diplomat. 

 

- He does not have the same endurance as Obama or a younger president. People worry about his physical weakness and that he will be in power between the ages of 82 and 86. It is really old, by European standards. Really, really old.  

 

To questions about whether his advanced age could be an obstacle in a second term, Biden himself answered with a confident:  

 

- Just check me out. 

 

In March 2021, the president stood on his nose on the steps of Air Force One. He was heavily mocked for it. Photo: AP  

 

New aircraft staircase  

 

And until the election in November 2024, the eyes of the world will undeniably be on Biden, who turns 81 this fall. In the footage released as he launched his new campaign, the president was seen jogging in a suit in a short clip.  

 

Among the Democrats' other measures to prevent Biden from appearing old are giving him larger letters on the teleprompter he reads speeches from, and memory cards to keep in hand to remember what messages he wants to get across in meetings.  

 

After the fall, Biden has also started using a shorter staircase when he gets on the presidential plane Air Force One. Instead of stepping on the long staircase at the front, he has started taking the shorter one in the middle of the plane. After the fall at the anti-aircraft ceremony, he has done that twice as often as before, according to NBC. 

 

When asked about the airplane stairs, in which the President of the United States is often filmed, the White House replies that the choice of stairs rather depends on the weather or whether a press corps wants to take pictures. But even when it wasn't raining, Biden preferred the shorter stairs, writes NBC. 

 

Biden has also skipped social dinners on his recent foreign trips. But according to the White House, it is rather that he already knows his international colleagues and has had to prioritize other work.