With President Biden withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race, former President Trump will become the oldest candidate in U.S. history, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by Democrats, who are trying to push the age issue onto the Republicans.
“This is going to be a fight between Donald Trump, probably the oldest candidate in history, and Kamala Harris,” Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Democrat from Florida, said after reports that Biden had dropped out of the race, according to the Associated Press.
Maxwell’s comments come as the race for the White House is thrown into turmoil after Biden announced his resignation on Sunday, insisting in a statement posted on social media that he made the decision “in the best interests of our party and our country.”
Kamala Harris announces 2024 presidential run after Biden drops out
Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Getty Images)
Concerns about what was best for the party and the country have focused primarily on Biden’s age and mental acuity, issues that became even more pronounced after his disastrous performance in the presidential debates earlier this month. Calls for Biden, who will be 82 by Inauguration Day, to withdraw from the race grew in the weeks after the debate, culminating in his decision to step down on Sunday.
The decision makes Trump, 78, the oldest candidate in history and opens up a new line of attack for Democrats.
“Donald Trump is too old to be president,” Ohio Democratic Rep. Casey Weinstein wrote on X in response to the news that Trump had become the oldest candidate ever.
President Biden speaks during a campaign event at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center, Thursday, April 18, 2024, in Philadelphia. (Hannah Beyer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Throwing President Biden out of the race may have been more of a problem for Congress than the White House.
“This guy is almost 80 years old, so the question is, can he serve another four years? I don’t know if he can,” former South Carolina congressman and Democrat Bakari Sellers told CNN.
Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden put forward as his top choice after dropping out, also plans to attack Trump’s age if she ends up as the nominee, The Telegraph reported, citing the vice presidential chief of staff.
White House veteran Erin Wilson hinted at a similar strategy, saying in a conference call with the group “Win With Black Women” that Harris would “use her age and health issues as obstacles for Trump,” according to the report.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Las Vegas on June 28, 2024. (Bizayev Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“Her role as a prosecutor contrasts most strongly with Trump, who is a convicted felon,” Wilson reportedly said on the call.
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In response to a request for comment from Fox News Digital, Harris campaign spokesman James Singer said, “Americans are rightly concerned that the Republican Party has nominated a 78-year-old convicted felon, Donald Trump, as its nominee,” adding, “After decades of defrauding the working class, now Trump is destroying our democracy, banning abortion and only thinking about himself.”
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