US President Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia, slated for later this month, has been delayed apparently due to fears related to POTUS’ age, according to The Telegraph.
The newspaper reported that while White House aides cited “diplomatic” reasons for postponing Biden’s trip, it seems the real explanation is that officials are concerned that extended travel would be “crazy” for a 79-year-old POTUS.
This was preceded by a piece by New York Times correspondent Peter Baker, who pointed out that “managing the schedule of the oldest president in American history presents distinct challenges.”
Baker argued in the piece published in the New York Times that if Biden “mounts another campaign in 2024”, he “would be asking the country to elect a leader who would be 86 at the end of his tenure, testing the outer boundaries of age and the presidency.”
The author claimed that the 46th US president’s age remains “unsurprisingly, a sensitive topic in the West Wing” as polls indicate that many respondents Biden too old and “some Democratic strategists do not think he should run again.”
According to Baker, on the one hand, Biden is working late into the night digesting memos and rewriting speeches, but on the other - some White House aides “quietly watch out” for POTUS, who “often shuffles when he walks” and “stumbles over words during public events.” This, the author adds, prods the aides to “hold their breath to see if he makes it to the end without a gaffe.”
The issue of Biden's health has been repeatedly raised in the press, as he has been moсked over his gaffes and hiccups for quite a long time, mixing up Iraq with Iran, as well as Sweden with Switzerland, pledging to put 720 million American women back into the workforce (the entire US population is just 321 million), and – as a Democratic presidential candidate - telling black potential voters they are not black if they could not figure out whether to vote for him or Donald Trump.