The White House is no place for old men

The world’s most important election of 2024 features a criminal and a codger.

Columnist|

June 7, 2024 The Washington Post

Former president Donald Trump in a New York courtroom and President Biden in the White House. (Reuters)

The first shots of the 2024 battle for the presidency have been fired by the two oldest humans ever to suffer self-delusion at the country’s expense. The highest-stakes contest in the democratic world is between a criminal and a codger.

Former president Donald Trump’s newly burnished criminal record is well-known — guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records. With rare glee, Biden the Elder now wields “criminal” to describe Trump like a drunken Jedi with a lightsaber.

He should enjoy the moment because, otherwise, the president toggles between lucidity and a dimming of the mind that is obvious to anyone whose political interests do not require denial. A recent investigation by the Wall Street Journal tracked Biden’s cognitive condition and interviewed 45 lawmakers and administration officials about him.

The result was a narrative that should unnerve Americans considering a second term for Biden, who would be 86 in 2028.

In the Journal’s report, observers (most but not all Republicans) said Biden is no longer his former self. Democrats, including presidential staffers, disagreed, saying in effect Oh, no, he’s 100 percent in control. They explained away accounts of the president repeating stories as Biden being Biden. But he was said to be repeating stories in the same meeting.

The president also frequently uses note cards to stay on track in meetings, according to the Journal. Staff: That’s perfectly normal. Lots of presidents do that.

Not really, but fine. There’s no crime in referring to notes when specifics are crucial. At least he didn’t write them on the palm of his hand as his erstwhile vice-presidential opponent, Sarah Palin, once did.

Others in the Journal report described Biden’s voice as being so low at times — and his enunciation nearly indecipherable — that people had to strain to hear or understand him. As though someone had pulled the plug on the president and he was slowly shutting down.

The Journal report received an almost-immediate boost when the president’s mind wandered off script during his otherwise inspiring speech in France this week to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Speaking to D-Day veterans, Biden drew a parallel to Ukraine’s war against Russia. Saying that allies should support Ukraine, he then lamented the hundreds of thousands of Russian troops killed in Ukraine.

“They’ve suffered tremendous losses with Russia — the numbers are staggering, 350,000 Russian troops dead or wounded,” he said.

Maybe Democrats have merely grown accustomed to Biden’s manner of speaking through the decades. It’s true that a younger Biden also often suffered a disconnect between his brain and his mouth. His legendary malaprops and slip-ups could fill a doorstop volume. Biden has put his foot in his mouth so many times that his tongue and toes have created a comedy act and, I hear, hired an agent.

Or maybe people are lying and covering for the president for fear that honesty would empower Trump. If you find this tack defensible, I highly suggest a quick read of Jerzy Kosinski’s “Being There.” If that’s too taxing, there’s also a movie.

This is not to suggest that Trump is the better candidate. But he benefits from human forgetfulness, as suggested by recent polling. Trump is more popular now than when he left office in 2021. And data from the election forecasters 270toWin, using five recent national surveys, shows Trump and Biden tied at 44.2 percent each. Almost 56 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Biden is doing, according to RealClearPolitics.

Have we really forgotten the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump, glued to his several TV screens, watched protests evolve into a riot and breach the Capitol — and kept on watching. By the time he spoke out against the mayhem, the damage was incalculable, not just to the Capitol and the nerves of those trapped and hunted inside but to the country’s faith in the peaceful transfer of power.

Trump’s trial concerning his sexual history with a porn star was a distraction from his far more serious affronts: the lies, disinformation, gaslighting and pettifoggery. But her testimony and that of others reminded us that Trump has the character of a honey badger.

Trump, too, has shown signs of cognitive deterioration, as pointed out by some fellow Republicans, including Nikki Haley. Yet Trump benefits from the comparison with Biden, who at least twice has reported speaking with world leaders who are long dead.

This is what happens when you stay in politics too long.

Biden’s aides, ever alert to Trump’s own cognitive decline, have pointed to his perceived napping during his trial. If this was their best shot, they’ve never sat through a trial, most of which could cure insomnia. (When I can’t sleep, I ask my lawyer-husband to tell me about his day.) Trump’s conviction, alas, isn’t the ending many had hoped for. He’s still in the running and still could win. In weird news, no law keeps him from serving as president while in prison.

Republicans soon must decide whether they’re in for the short game or the long one. If Biden wins, the GOP has a shot in 2028 for the next eight years or more with a full bench of next-generation aspirants. If Trump wins, the GOP might well lose its tether to the mother ship, free-floating through time and space for the indefinite future.

Given the Republican Party’s current composition — people who want to block access to contraception, really? — that long-game option might be the best outcome. Except, that is, for the alternate universe where Democrats govern for the long run.

Opinion by Kathleen Parker

Kathleen Parker writes a column on politics and culture. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2010.

[Salon] The White House is no place for old men

The White House is no place for old men