A new Politico column warned that Democrats are having a hard time getting voters to see past their concerns for President Biden’s age as he runs for re-election.
Politico senior columnist Jonathan Martin published a piece Tuesday detailing how Democratic leaders are seeing that their voters are apprehensive about Biden’s age and have trouble recalling his accomplishments.
"Every Democratic consultant I’ve talked to in recent weeks said that’s the only refrain they pick up on Biden," Martin declared, citing the president’s age.
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Martin argued Biden hasn’t done enough to address the biggest threat to his campaign: his age. If re-elected, he'll be 82 years old at the start of his term.
"The most pressing political challenge confronting President Joe Biden as he drifts uncontested toward renomination is that which he can do the least about: voters’ profound misgivings about his age and fitness to serve another full term," he wrote, adding, "Yet what’s striking, and to his allies increasingly unnerving, is Biden’s unwillingness even to try to fully address questions about his capacity to run for reelection next year, when he’ll turn 82."
Martin added that "Biden has conducted little polling on how to reassure voters about his age, complains bitterly about his intra-party critics who raise the issue in public and is unwilling to consider hearing aids, according to Democrats close to him."
He detailed how when watching recent voter focus groups being conducted in Michigan and Nevada, lawmakers at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee noticed that "nearly all" the voters "responded to questions about Biden the same way voters do in every focus group: by bringing up his age."
Martin mentioned speaking to a pollster who conducted a focus group in North Carolina who mentioned voters were preoccupied with the same concerns. The pollster claimed the first word or phrase voters used when discussing Biden was "some combination of ‘old, slowing down’ or, if they were harsher, ‘dementia or feeble.’"
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Additionally, Martin recounted how that pollster had "to push participants to get any more impressions of Biden and there was scant recall of his accomplishments."
Democratic lawmakers expressed the need for the president to deal with concerns about his age. Martin spoke to Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who advised "I think you got to be as public as you possibly can in addressing issues, and that’s how you can settle it. But it’s not going to be easy because he is [going to be] 82 years old."
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., remarked on dealing with Biden’s age, telling the columnist, "I think it’s important to confront it."
Others, like Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich., claimed that a primary challenge may prove useful for allowing Biden to display his competence. She said, "Only positive things could come from an open and competitive primary in the presidential election. It is a detriment to all of us if we are ignoring the concerns of the public around the president’s image."
She urged her party to "get more people out there," adding, "what are we afraid of? It’s problematic that we’re ignoring it. It makes us look out of touch, it makes us look afraid."
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital for comment.
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