White House aides and close allies of President Joe Biden told Axios that they believe the 81-year-old has been “aging more rapidly” over the last few months due to the stress caused by his job and his son’s legal battles.
Since Biden dropped out of the presidential race July 21, the president has held few public events, having none scheduled in 43 of the 75 days since he ended his 2024 campaign, according to an Axios analysis. Of those events, only two were scheduled before 11 a.m., zero before 10 a.m. and five after 5 p.m., the Axios analysis shows. As concerns of Biden’s fitness heighten, Axios noted that the White House denied observations from aides and allies, adding that a lot of the president’s work was done behind closed doors.
“Being commander-in-chief is about far more than public events, which are scheduled at strategic times to reach the most Americans possible, like before 20 million Americans watch the national evening news,” Andrew Bates, White House spokesperson, told Axios.
“[The president] works around the clock long before and after these times as the historic results he continues to achieve weekly for the American people demonstrate,” Bates continued.
The president has also taken all calls and meetings with world leaders, except for one instance, between the hours of 11 a.m. and 5 p.m since leaving the race, Axios reported. In the aftermath of Biden’s disastrous debate performance, the president’s aides noted to Axios that outside the hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Biden was more susceptible to “verbal miscues” and fatigue.