On Thursday night in Atlanta, President Joe Biden, 81, and presumed Republican nominee Donald Trump, 78, will become the oldest U.S. presidential candidates to ever spar in a debate.
Perhaps their collective 160 years of life experience isn’t news. Biden and Trump will be breaking the record they set in the 2020 campaign. And either would be the oldest president on Inauguration Day in January 2025.
What might make news are the questions a CNN moderator or others may raise in months ahead about Biden’s or Trump’s capacity to lead because of their ages.
The first presidential debate: Where to watch Trump-Biden face off
How Trump’s age and Biden’s age compare to previous candidates’
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On Nov. 20, 2022, Biden broke new ground by becoming the first 80-year-old commander in chief, but consider how many of his and Trump’s peers also are still working.
Only about a quarter of Americans 65 and over are in the workforce, but nearly 2 million people over 75 are still working, based on estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS projects the number of workers older than 75 could grow to 3.3 million, or 2% of the workforce, by 2032.
Maybe more significant to those in the ageism camp: CEOs who lead four of the 500 largest U.S. companies are older than both candidates, according to a Madison Trust Company analysis.
Number of older workers projected to jump by 2032
Perhaps some of these 75-year-old American workers aren’t running companies and are pursuing less stressful second careers. But it’s also likely some are working in the same job they have for years, and a few undoubtedly are still running organizations.
Trump with his business interests and Biden with his decades in Washington politics might be outliers. But you don’t need to look too far down Pennsylvania Avenue to see 47 other elected officials who are over 75 years old:
- Senate: 14 | Oldest: 90 – Chuck Grassley, R-IA
- House of Representatives: 33 | Oldest: 87 – Grace Napolitano, D-CA, Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-DC, and Bill Pascrell Jr., D-NJ
From 26 to 90: Ages of the lawmakers elected to the 118th Congress
Admittedly that’s not necessarily the representation that Americans say they want.
USA TODAY and Suffolk University polled 1,000 registered voters in October. The respondents overwhelmingly supported setting a maximum age limit for members of Congress, but they differed on what those limits should be.
Age limits voters say they would like for members of Congress
Is Biden or Trump the best fit for the job?
Yes, the elephant and, er, the donkey in the room are the gaffs – real and concocted. Those on either side of the aisle have promoted and replayed videos, suggesting either Trump or Biden might not be capable of the complexities of the office.
Maybe both aren’t. Maybe both are. Should it come as a surprise if either candidate slips up during the course of the presidential marathon?
The CDC says for those over 65 years old, memory lapses are not uncommon in healthy adults. Memory changes can show up in a variety of ways. A few which might attributed to either candidate:
- Forgetting the most recent events
- Forgetting the name of acquaintance
- Struggling to find a word but remembering it later
What’s not up for debate: The election begins in earnest with Thursday night’s CNN debate at 9 p.m. ET, and the winner in November will be the oldest president in U.S. history at the end of his term.