VOV.VN - Republican candidate Donald Trump has been using the age card to attack Joe Biden for months. However, the tables have turned and the former President is facing a similar attack from Kamala Harris.
A national survey released last week by the Marquette Law School Poll found that 57% of voters said Trump was “too old to run,” compared to 79% for Biden. Only 13% said the same about Harris, who turns 60 in October. Age is one of many issues voters care about in multiple polls that could influence the outcome of this year’s election.
Mr. Donald Trump (left) and Ms. Kamala Harris (right). Photo: Getty
Democrats strike back
Some Democrats are relieved after months of defending an older candidate against attacks on her age, Politico writer Megan Messerly said. The age-related counterattack was used by the Democrats shortly after they had a candidate much younger than former President Trump, Ms. Kamala Harris.
Anita Dunn, a close adviser to Mr. Biden, said the counterattack "had an immediate effect." "An older candidate represents anachronism. Every voter expects the US president to be someone who moves the country forward, not in the opposite direction. Therefore, Mr. Trump has a hard time meeting the expectations of voters," Ms. Dunn said. Paul Maslin, a leading Democratic pollster who worked on the presidential campaigns of Jimmy Carter and Howard Dean, said Mr. Trump's age was a "highlight" in the vice president's statements. However, the vice president has always been more cautious and tactful when mentioning this issue throughout the election campaign. During a trip to battleground states last week, Ms. Harris criticized tax cuts for large corporations - a Trump-era policy that has not helped the working class. Many people are still "denied health insurance for pre-existing conditions" and women "are losing their reproductive freedom," she said. The crowd at Harris's event repeatedly chanted "We're not going back," a phrase that has become a hallmark of Harris' campaign over the past few weeks. "This race is not just about me and Trump," she said at an event in Las Vegas last weekend. "This is about defining the next four years of America: one vision — our vision — focused on the future and the other on the past." Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, 60, openly attacked Trump's age at a fundraiser in Newport Beach, California, this week. He described his Republican opponent as "exhausted and low on energy," and advised Trump to "take a break this weekend." There's no denying that Trump has been the one who initiated the age-related attacks. Before Harris flipped the race, the Trump campaign had repeatedly criticized Biden's age, framing the race as a choice between "strength and weakness." And after five years of relentless attacks on the incumbent's mental acuity, Trump has "muddied" the Republican Party's messaging, said Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners and an adviser to Biden's 2020 campaign. Lake also pointed out that Trump continues to give Harris's campaign new opportunities to dig deeper. He held a meandering 90-minute news conference in New Jersey on August 15, criticizing the vice president’s ban on “price gouging” on groceries, linking her to the Biden administration’s economic policies and calling her a “radical California liberal.” Then his speech “went off into a lot of other stuff.” Trump has had similar performances in other public appearances, including a conversation with billionaire Elon Musk this week, a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate last week and his recent appearance at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. “He’s been so verbose at rallies and in other conversations that it’s tiring and boring. That’s not something you see from Trump,” political analyst Megyn Kelly wrote on her personal page, attributing it to “an age-related change.”
Ms. Harris cannot be subjective.
The Democrats’ focus on Trump’s age could turn off many older voters. Harris and other Democrats have publicly defended Biden after his missteps and underwhelming performance on the debate stage. The media at the time said the party was backing the oldest candidate in US history for re-election.
US President Joe Biden. Photo: Reuters
Although she is considered a younger newcomer than Mr. Trump, that does not mean the Vice President is "out of danger." Among the recent generations of US presidents, Ms. Harris is still in the middle. She is younger than Mr. Biden, Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan when they took office, but older than Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. According to many observers, Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump, based on some criteria, are considered to be in the same generation. The couple is at the beginning of the Baby Boomer generation as defined by the US Census Bureau, which spans from the former President's birth year of 1946 to the Vice President's birth year of 1964. The Vice President himself is only 5 years away from being eligible for Medicare - a national health insurance program in the US for the elderly. Still, the two candidates are seen as polar opposites: a white, male, nearly 80-year-old real estate mogul from New York and a female, African-American and Asian-American, nearly 60-year-old prosecutor from the Bay Area. “Americans want something new and different. That’s what the Harris-Walz combination brings them. That’s an advantage for the Democrats, but we also need to pay attention to the side effects,” said Pete Giangreco, a longtime Democratic strategist who has worked on several presidential campaigns.
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