| FRONTLINERS ON BIDEN'S AGE: AND? The recent special counsel report depicting President Joe Biden as suffering from memory lapses sparked a new flurry of concerns about his age and his fitness for reelection — but not among the president’s Democratic allies in the House, many of whom will have to share a ballot with Biden in key swing districts later this year. Rather, they have been forcefully pushing back against special counsel Robert Hur’s unflattering report by deflecting the health questions and defending his record. Some have angrily accused Hur, a Republican former U.S. attorney who declined to charge the president over his handling of classified documents, of political motivations in raising questions about Biden’s acuity. “The report is total bullshit. A political hack job,” said purple-district Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), who defended the president’s record and said he’d welcome him to visit his district. Trump-district Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), meanwhile, responded to questions about Biden’s age by claiming that voters’ larger concern was about “the homogeneity of Congress.” “That lack of diversity is what I think is at the heart of a lot of this frustration,” she said. Privately, House Democrats acknowledge Biden’s age is a question that likely will continue to come up as November inches closer. But two Democrats told Inside Congress they believe they can point to Republican dysfunction in the House as a way to win back the majority and keep their seats — separating the battle for the House majority from the presidential race. Publicly, many Democrats have leaned on their own personal experiences dealing with Biden — and their willingness to overlook his occasional public stumbles. “Everybody knows the president's age, but when I've talked to him, he is incredibly lucid,” said Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), who represents a safe blue district. “I can also tell you that I get up in the morning, and I might have an event at 8:30 a.m. By 4 in the afternoon, I have completely forgotten that I had that event. It doesn't mean that I am not mentally stable. It means I've got a lot going on.” Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), who’s vacating a swing district to run for Senate, briefly floated age limits for politicians during a recent Senate debate, though she told us that the presidency involves a different set of considerations. “It’s different because the president is term-limited to two terms,” she said. “We would have to really talk about this and think about this and connect with the public and ask ourselves how we can keep our democracy vibrant, and how we can create multigenerational leadership.” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates ascribed the age concerns to partisanship, noting a divergence between Republicans’ public and private pronouncements about the president’s mental fitness. “When you take stock of the unprecedented results President Biden’s experienced leadership has delivered ever since Republican officials began crying about his age in early 2019 … it’s hard not to conclude that the right wing’s public whining is anything but a good luck charm,” Bates said. One House Democrat, of course, can’t stop talking about Biden’s age: Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who launched a quixotic primary challenge to the incumbent on the premise that he is not up to the job of beating likely Republican nominee Donald Trump. But most of Phillips’ colleagues have kept his longshot bid at arm’s length; some have made it a punchline as they’ve broadly signaled they’re still ridin’ with Biden. — Nicholas Wu and Daniella Diaz
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