With 78-year-old Donald Trump now certain to face a Democratic candidate younger than he is, the Republican could have the tables turned on him over the questions of age and mental agility that he often sidestepped while Joe Biden was his opponent.
The age gap between Trump and any of his likely Democrat opponents – Kamala Harris, 59; Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, 52; Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, 51 – could make him the sole focus of voters’ desire for a generational handover of power.
And with Biden’s often stumbling public appearances – and especially his disastrous debate – now a thing of the past, there is likely to be a fresh focus on Trump’s mental acuity and his frequently rambling, confused campaign speeches.
Last month, for example, Trump got the name of his own doctor wrong. Previously he has made high-profile campaign trail gaffes, in which he seemed to think Barack Obama was still president and mistook his arch Republican rival Nikki Haley for Nancy Pelosi.
Nearly 60% of US voters said last month that Biden should “definitely” or “probably” be replaced, while Trump’s favorability rating had risen to 40% since his hush-money conviction and the attempt on his life eight days ago. Harris’s favorability sits at around 39%.
Biden’s departure from the ticket upends several aspects of Republican’s calculations, including that Trump the felon will now possibly have to debate Harris the former prosecutor in September – if she receives the nomination.
The vice-president proved her debating skills in 2019 when she delivered a highly personal attack on Biden on the issue of race that he later described as “hurtful” and chilled relations between the Biden-Harris camps before she was named vice-president.
Political commentator Anthony Michael Kreis posted on Twitter/X soon after Biden’s announcement: “I can’t believe the GOP is running an old guy for president. Yikes.”
Trump’s reaction to his recent assassination attempt – pumping his fist and mouthing “Fight, fight, fight!” – has been full of vigor and helped unify his Republican party behind him and after his brush with death, he vowed to run a “unity” campaign.
But that pledge dissolved on Saturday when he returned to disparaging Biden, Harris and the Democratic agenda and has been delivering his usual rants on the campaign trail, often laced with conspiracy theories and even a repeated and bizarre reference to a shark.
After Biden announced he would abandon his re-election effort, Trump responded to Biden’s announcement, saying his now ex-rival was not fit to run for president and “not fit to serve”.
Trump said last week he didn’t think that switching out Biden for Harris “would make much difference”, he told Bloomberg. “I would define her in a very similar [way] that I define him.”
A pro-Trump Super Pac accused Harris on Sunday of being “in on” a cover-up of Biden’s “mental decline”, and characterized her as the driving force behind the administration’s policies.
Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf says that Trump’s “less than gracious” response to Biden stepping down is something Democrats will hope continues as a successor to Biden emerges. “Trump is reverting to type, Biden is out of the picture, and Trump is the only one who can seize defeat from the jaws of victory.
“Without having Biden as his opponent, and calling him ‘Sleepy Joe’, who is he going to rail against? How he attacks a woman is very different but you can already tell from the way he attacked Biden on Sunday that he’s not thinking clearly. His vitriol has taken over again.
“Democrats will be able to use Harris as an offensive chess piece in the suburbs of the country, women’s right to chose and reproductive freedom, and hope that Trump screws up by overreacting so they can accuse him of bring incapable of controlling himself because of his age,” Sheinkopf said, “and it becomes a different race.”
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