Democrats Immediately Start Calling Trump Too Old

Democrats have begun to question former President Donald Trump's age hours after he was made the oldest presidential candidate in history yesterday. A Kamala Harris campaign spokesperson told Newsweek that "the American people are rightly concerned."

Following President Joe Biden's decision to not seek re-election, which would have cast him as the oldest person to ever be nominated by either party, Donald Trump has instead taken the title, at the age of 78.

Now, prominent Democrats are quickly turning criticisms made against Biden on their head, highlighting Trump's age as a major issue in the campaign going forward. The presumptive Democrat nominee, Harris, is 59; almost 20 years younger than Trump. Newsweek contacted the Trump campaign for comment via email.

The decision for Biden to step down came after increasing pressure from high-level Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. Concern over Biden's age came to a head after a debate with Trump in June, which many viewers considered a disaster for the president's image, and which coincided with polling drops in several swing states.

Top Democrat campaign group Occupy Democrats started criticizing Trump's age just hours after Biden announced his endorsement of Harris, posting on social media: "Donald Trump is 78 years old and in a state of profound cognitive decline. He should end his campaign immediately."

Similarly, the Republicans Against Trump movement highlighted a prediction made by Nikki Haley when she was still running for the Republican nominee, saying: "The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the one who wins this election."

A spokesperson for the Harris campaign told Newsweek: "The American people are rightly concerned that the Republican party has nominated Donald Trump, a 78-year-old convicted criminal who has spent decades screwing over working people and now wants to destroy our democracy, ban abortion, and only cares about himself."

Dr. Laura Smith, a researcher of presidential history at the University of Oxford, told Newsweek that while age could be an issue for Trump due to his focus on it thus far, he maintains a more youthful energy that could dispel some of the narrative.

Smith said: "Age could potentially become more of an issue for Trump, who stressed his apparent healthy diagnosis by former White House Dr Ronny Jackson at his recent rally in Michigan. But like a lot of politicians, Trump's energy seems to mask a lot of these concerns and he is now also flanked by a younger running mate."

Smith said that it was more likely for gender and race to play a greater role in the campaign going forward rather than age, due to Harris' presumptive status as the first Black woman to be nominated by a major party.

Dr. Casey Burgat, legislative affairs program director at George Washington University, also highlighted the change in campaign rhetoric, saying that Kamala was much more comfortable communicating with energy and youthfulness than both Biden and Trump.

Bugat told Newsweek: "Democrats are going to immediately flip the script of what we've heard Republicans say about Biden, now that Trump is the oldest candidate for President in history. Whether it's Kamala Harris or others, that will be a case to make for voters; this is a 24/7 job, mental acuity is a big factor in it."

Burgat said that today was key for Kamala to bring Democrats in line behind her, and that the conversation about age would be easier with her as the candidate.

"Fifty-nine is not young in the general population sense, but it's the relative comparison that does the damage. 59 is not the going-on-80 that Trump is, and it's definitely not the going-on-82 that Biden was. The difference between the two is where she can draw her advantage.

"She's going to purposefully play up the younger side of her, she's going to talk to younger demographics in a way that Trump and Biden couldn't, and she's going to do it with energy and music- all the things that signal youth and energy and vigor. That's what she's going to capitalise on."

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