As Joe Biden winds down his time in office, his age and fitness have re-emerged as a hot topic, a measuring stick for the Democratic Party’s future leaders. A new book with allegations that White House aides covered up Biden’s physical and mental decline has only fueled these questions.
In recent days, several potential candidates for the Democratic Party’s 2028 nomination have been forced to answer whether they believe Biden had declined during his time in office, and whether he should have sought re-election before a disastrous debate performance led to his withdrawal.
Many in the Democratic Party want to focus on a second term for President Donald Trump. However, Trump has worked hard to prevent that from happening – according to an NBC News analysis, he mentioned Biden an average of six times a day during his first 100 days in office. The Republican Party has followed suit, betting that voters who are frustrated with Trump’s decisions will still prefer him to memories of an unpopular presidency.
In this year’s Virginia gubernatorial race, one of the most prominent contests, Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears released two television ads linking Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger to Biden, with images of the two embracing and the former president calling her a friend.
“The stench of Joe Biden lingers in the Democratic Party,” remarked Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett. “We have to do the hard work of fixing that, and I think that includes telling the truth, honestly, about the times we were wrong.”
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut told Politico this week that there was “no doubt” that Biden, now 82, had experienced cognitive decline while in office.
Pete Buttigieg, who served as Secretary of Transportation, wasn’t quite as blunt, but he didn’t fully defend Biden’s decision to seek re-election either. When asked whether the Democratic Party would be better off if Biden hadn’t tried for a second term, he responded “maybe.”
“Right now, looking back with the clarity of hindsight, I think most people would agree,” Buttigieg told reporters during a stop in Iowa.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said he had seen no signs of mental or physical decline in his meetings with Biden.
“I’ve met with him a number of times,” he told CNN this week. “I’ve certainly been to the White House any time I have the opportunity to present an issue for the people of my state. And I’ve never had an experience other than him being someone who brings a lot of good ideas to the table about how to solve problems.”
The book “Original Sin,” by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson, has reignited a core debate during Biden’s time in office: the decision to run for a second term despite voters, including Democrats, telling pollsters he shouldn’t.
Even as Democratic leaders dismiss a series of gaffes and Republican allegations of cognitive decline, Biden has faced widespread skepticism within his own party. In January 2022, just a year into Biden’s first term, an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that just 48% of Democrats wanted him to run again. That number fell to 37% in February 2023. Three-quarters of Americans – and 69% of Democrats – said in August 2023 that they believed Biden was too old to serve as president for another four years.
And in the immediate aftermath of the disappointing debate, nearly two-thirds of Democrats said Biden should drop out of the race.
Biden and his wife, former First Lady Jill Biden, appeared on ABC’s “The View” to defend his health and decision-making abilities before the first excerpts of “Original Sin” were published. He said he was responsible for Trump’s victory but blamed Harris’s loss, at least in part, on sexism and racism. He insisted that he would have won if he had remained the Democratic nominee.
Patricia McEnerney, 74, a Democrat in Goodyear, Arizona, argued that Biden shouldn’t have tried to run again. “I think it’s sad that it’s ended up this way,” she said. She compared him to Douglas MacArthur, the celebrated World War II and Korean War general who was fired by President Harry Truman.
“I think he needs to stop giving interviews. I think that would help,” McEnerney said. “Like MacArthur said, generals simply fade away.”
Janet Stumps, 66, also a Democrat from Goodyear, a Phoenix suburb, took a different view. “I don’t think it hurts the Democratic Party,” Stumps said. “I feel bad that he feels he has to defend himself. I don’t think he needs to. Everybody gets old. And for what he’s accomplished at his age, I think he deserves credit.”
Sawyer Hackett, the Democratic strategist, predicted that Biden wouldn’t be a major factor in the 2026 midterm elections or the 2028 presidential primaries. But he said that Democrats who want voters to trust them will benefit from “telling the truth about the mistakes our party made before 2024.”
“Those mistakes largely fall at the feet of Joe Biden, and I think any Democrat who’s unwilling to say that isn’t really prepared to face voters who want truth and authenticity,” Hackett said.
Rick Wilson, a former GOP strategist who co-founded the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project, said that the Republican Party wants to talk about Biden to avoid having to defend Trump. But he said the strategy is stupid. Except for “political obsessives,” he said, “nobody else cares.”
According to a report from The Associated Press published in the Seattle Times on May 15, 2025.
