Are US politicians too old? — Global News Podcast

[0:00] Welcome to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm joined by our youthful [0:06] Washington correspondent, Daniel Bush. Daniel, are U.S. politicians too old? [0:12] Well, that's the question on everyone's mind right now. I appreciate you calling me [0:15] youthful. We'll get into this a little bit. I am one day younger than the vice president [0:20] of the United States, J.D. Vance. So whether or not that's youthful is in the eye of the beholder. [0:25] But listen, this is age in politics has been in the headlines here in the United States [0:30] over the weekend with the death of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, as well as with the long [0:36] hospitalization of Mitch McConnell. Lindsey Graham was 71. Mitch McConnell is in his mid 80s. This [0:43] has been a topic now for years in the United States as leaders in both parties have been older. Obviously, [0:49] age was a major issue for the last president, Joe Biden, who ended up dropping his bid [0:55] for reelection amid concern over his ability to do the job. The current president, Donald Trump, [1:01] along with Biden, is only the second U.S. president ever to be 80 in office. So that is the big debate. [1:07] You know, our politicians, the leaders in both parties, too many of them critics, some critics [1:13] argue are too old to do the job. Is this something that matters to voters? Well, that's a very good [1:21] question. I mean, you know, from one perspective, you could argue that it does not because voters have [1:26] elected multiple presidential candidates who are in their late 70s or even pushing 80. You know, [1:33] it goes to what the options are for voters, right? And if we take a step back for a minute, [1:38] the average age of members of Congress in the House is approaching 60. It's a little under 60. The [1:43] average age of senators is approaching 70. And there are a couple of reasons for that, which I think are [1:48] important to point out. You know, there are typically two tracks in the U.S. for people who end up in [1:54] elected office. One is career politicians and one is people who were not involved in politics and then enter [1:59] politics later in life. For career politicians, the typical track, again, this is typical and not the case for [2:05] everyone, is you're working your way up through the ranks like in any industry, right? So serving on your local [2:11] city council and then becoming a state senator or assembly person, then running for Congress. And typically by the [2:16] time you end up running for Congress, and especially by the time you end up running for the Senate, you've been doing this [2:20] for decades, which means that you're in your 40s, 50s, 60s, or even older. And then often, as is the case for [2:27] people who weren't in elected office to begin with, they built a career in business, in media, and in any [2:33] other field, and then you end up running again in their 40s and 50s. And there are outliers. Joe Biden was [2:40] the youngest person ever elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972 at the age of 29. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, [2:46] she was one of the youngest members ever elected to the House, now close to a decade ago. But for the most part, by the [2:53] time that these people enter office or run for high profile office, they are in their 50s or older. And that's the [3:01] choice that voters have. And so that's who they put in these positions. [3:04] Yeah, and it does tend to be older people who actually go out and vote. Younger people are less likely to vote. I mean, is this a sign that [3:13] maybe the candidates, being older, are out of touch with the younger voters? [3:18] This is something that President Obama himself pointed out in an interview just a few days ago. [3:24] And I'll pull it up here so I can quote from Obama directly. He said, [3:28] I'm a pretty healthy 64, that he feels great. But the truth is that he feels that half of the references [3:34] that his daughters make about social media, he doesn't understand. And then Obama went on to say, [3:38] there is an element of at some point you age out. And Obama also said that he wasn't suggesting a [3:47] sort of hard and fast rule, as he put it. But he did think that Democrats, and again, he's speaking [3:53] about his party in particular, do well when we have candidates who are plugged into the moment, [3:57] to the zeitgeist, as Obama put it. So here we have the former president making an argument that [4:02] at least his party anyway, will be better served if they can put forward candidates who are younger, [4:09] who are more plugged into topics of the moment. Of course, it's easier for him to say that having [4:16] gone through and now effectively retired from elected office. He's one of only a half dozen or so [4:22] Americans in history who entered the presidency under the age of 50. So he's comfortably looking at this [4:30] in the rearview mirror, if you will. But he was channeling something that I've heard in both the [4:36] Democratic Party and the Republican Party for years covering politics, which is some frustration from [4:41] voters that older candidates simply aren't with the times, don't understand the issues that matter to [4:49] them most. And we have a lot of examples where that has really stood out. Certainly, the last [4:55] competitive Democratic primary election, which was 2020, where Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth [5:01] Warren, a lot of the leading candidates were in their 70s or approaching 80. And, you know, at times during [5:08] that campaign season, clearly, you know, showed a generational divide between much younger candidates who [5:15] are in some cases decades younger than them. That's one example. There have also been moments on Capitol Hill [5:22] recently in the last decade or so where Congress has gotten more serious about trying to regulate [5:27] technology companies, social media companies, where members of Congress have brought, you know, the Mark Zuckerbergs of the [5:33] world up to the hill to grill them in testimony, where we've seen these lawmakers talking about technology and [5:40] clearly struggling to grasp it and understand it. So the moments like that are a reminder that the people in power in this [5:47] country oftentimes are, in fact, somewhat out of touch with some of these issues. [5:51] And there have been questions where there have been serving presidents and suggestions that they may [5:57] have dementia. And people have realized that if you do have a president with dementia, it's never been proved [6:03] while they've been in office. But if you did have a president with dementia, there's very little you could do [6:08] about it. And to put it crudely, they have their hands on the nuclear button. [6:12] That's right. And again, you know, just to use the most recent example, this was an issue that was debated and talked [6:19] about during Joe Biden's presidency. He entered office in his very late 70s, became the first sitting [6:26] president over 80 in the Oval Office, and then prepared to run for reelection at the age of 82, which if he had [6:33] served a second full term, had he won, would have put him at 86 as he was leaving office. Biden's disastrous [6:39] debate performance where he appeared to out of it. He was stumbling, forgetting, you know, his his train [6:46] of thought often was a shock to the nation. You know, a stark example of a president who is older, like [6:54] many older Americans and people around the world, you know, dealing with with the realities of of aging. [7:01] The question is, though, Alex, you know, how much does this actually affect your job? And, you know, I think [7:07] there are two things to say here. On the one hand, you know, politicians, they're not day manual [7:14] laborers, right? You can sit comfortably behind a desk, you are flown around the world on government [7:19] planes, but this is private transportation, right? You're not waiting on long lines at the airport, [7:24] you have all your needs catered to presidents in particular have access to some of the very best [7:29] health care in the world. So the physical side, you know, that that part is sort of taken care of, [7:34] if you will. But these are emotionally, mentally, psychologically taxing, grueling jobs, whether [7:40] you're the president or a member of Congress, you are constantly scrutinized every word, you have [7:45] cameras on you from the moment you step out the door. That part of it is difficult. And of course, [7:51] public speaking is such a crucial part of the job, whether you're on a debate stage, whether you're [7:55] giving an interview, making a speech. And when presidents start to slip consistently and show signs [8:01] of age, as former President Biden did, then it starts a debate about whether or not they can [8:07] actually perform the duties of their office. And the White House under Biden insisted that he did. [8:12] And, and certainly, you know, you could see him in person sort of sitting there in meetings, [8:17] seeming to grasp the issues. But then when he stumbled, the question became, what is really [8:23] happening behind closed doors? And to your point, you know, can he exercise the duties of the office up to [8:29] and including military issues? Yeah, US presidents have term limits. How much support might there be [8:37] in Washington after the cases that you mentioned, maybe for age limits? [8:42] It would be a monumental task to actually do that to to change the fundamental principles underlying [8:48] the way that our government here in the United States is set up. It's highly, highly unlikely that [8:54] that would ever come to come to pass, in part because once politicians are in office, they like [8:59] to run for office and hold on to that office, which is why we see, you know, so many senators and members [9:05] of Congress in particular serving into their 70s, into their 80s. There have been instances in the last [9:10] decade or two, numerous of people serving even into their 90s. So once people get a hold of power, [9:15] they don't like to relinquish it. And for that self-serving interest alone, [9:19] it's highly unlikely that there would be a major change to the way that our government is set up [9:24] that would limit people from serving more than a couple of consecutive terms. [9:29] Some of the biggest names in Washington, you mentioned Mitch McConnell, who's been in hospital, [9:34] Nancy Pelosi, are reaching the end of their careers. Are there younger people waiting in the wings to take [9:43] over to take the big jobs? That's a very good question. There will be there is there has been a [9:49] push more so in the Democratic Party than the Republican Party, frankly, for among younger [9:55] members of Congress to take over those top jobs. These are both the party leader jobs, the House [10:02] majority leader, the House speaker, the Senate majority minority leaders, those jobs, as well as [10:08] the major ranking member or chairperson of the big, most influential committees in Congress that [10:15] control the power of the purse, that can approve judicial nominations, those kinds of positions. [10:22] So there is a push, especially on the Democratic side, among some younger members to rise up the [10:28] ranks a little bit faster. However, the way seniority works and it's a little complicated and [10:33] gets into the weeds quickly, those jobs likely go to the next in line. And the next in line in many, [10:40] many cases are also older politicians, you know, who have been doing this a long time, who've been [10:45] waiting their turn. So it's unlikely that as we as Mitch McConnell, who is not running for re-election, [10:53] Nancy Pelosi, also not running for re-election, as some of these major political figures of the [10:58] 21st century exit the scene, that there'll be sort of immediately overnight wholesale replaced by, [11:03] you know, the AOCs, the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezes of the world who are decades and decades younger, [11:09] but we'll begin to see that shift. Some of those people will get into those positions of power, [11:15] but it won't likely be sort of an overnight wholesale change. [11:18] Thanks, Daniel. Daniel Bush, our Washington correspondent. If you'd like more from the [11:24] Global News Podcast, click on the link below. Thanks for watching.