The advanced age of President Joe Biden, who is currently 80 and would be 86 upon leaving office if re-elected to a second term, has increasingly become an issue of concern for many American voters.
While some Democrats have dismissed questions about Biden's age, failed 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton recently acknowledged that voters "have every right to consider" the president's age as a factor in whether or not to re-elect him in 2024, the Western Journal reported.
The remarks were viewed by some as a sort of subtle dig at the elderly incumbent by a purported ally with her own unfulfilled presidential ambitions and a history of throwing fellow Democrats under the bus, according to the outlet.
Clinton sat for a lengthy discussion at the Financial Times Weekend Festival in Washington D.C. with the moderator, FT Editor Edward Luce, who asked her about President Biden near the end of the conversation in relation to a recent incident in which Biden nearly tumbled down some stairs at the G7 summit in Japan.
"Now, there was that heart-stopping moment where he almost fell over coming down the stairs a day or two ago. He didn't use the railings. Jill wasn't there with him," Luce said. "Every time that happens, your heart is in your mouth, because these things could be consequential. Is that a concern?"
"Well, I mean, it's a concern for anyone. And we've had presidents who've fallen before who are a lot younger, and people didn't go into heart palpitations," Clinton replied.
"But his age is an issue. And people have every right to consider it," she conceded.
The former first lady/senator/secretary of State/presidential nominee went on to then praise Biden for his alleged accomplishments over the past two years and added, "So I obviously hope he stays very focused and able to compete in the election because I think he -- I think he can be re-elected, and that's what we should all hope for."
Clinton's admission that President Biden's age is a legitimate "issue" for people to "consider" as a factor in determining whether or not he should be re-elected places her in a solid majority of Americans, according to several polls over the past few months.
On Wednesday, Quinnipiac University released the results of a poll of 1,616 registered voters conducted between May 18-22, with a margin of error of 2.4 percent, and among a variety of things asked if President Biden's was "too old to effectively serve" another four-year term in office.
Among registered voters, 65 percent said "Yes," including 90 percent of Republicans, 69 percent of independents, and even 41 percent of Democrats.
On May 6, an ABC News/Washington Post survey of 1,006 adults between April 28-May 3, with a margin of error of 3.5 percent, found that 68 percent of all Americans thought Biden was too old to continue serving, including 79 percent of Republicans, 75 percent of independents, and even 48 percent of Democrats.
That poll also revealed that only around one-third of all Americans believed that Biden had the necessary "mental sharpness" and "physical health" to continue effectively serving as the president.
Then there was an NBC News poll of 1,000 adults between April 14-18, with a margin of error between 3.1 and 4.1 percent, which revealed that 70 percent of adults said Biden should not run for a second term, and of those, around 48 percent said his advanced age was a "major" reason why.
