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Why These Older Voters Don’t Mind Having the Age Conversation
CNN One Thing
Feb 18, 2024
In the aftermath of special counsel Robert Hur’s report stating that President Joe Biden would present to a jury as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” age and mental competency are once again being talked about on the campaign trail. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has continually attacked Biden and former President Donald Trump over their age, while also proposing politicians over age 75 take a mental competency test. In this episode, we examine how older voters in South Carolina feel about age as a campaign issue ahead of the state’s Republican primary.
Guest: Kylie Atwood, CNN Correspondent
Episode Transcript
President Joe Biden
00:00:04
There's even reference that I don't remember when my son died. How the hell dare he raise that?
David Rind
00:00:13
By now, you probably heard how President Joe Biden responded to the special counsel report. You know, the one that cleared him of legal wrongdoing over his mishandling of classified documents, but in the process said he would likely present to a jury as a, quote, well meaning elderly man with a poor memory.
Reporter
00:00:31
Mr. president. For months when you were asked about your age, you would respond with the words watch me. Well, then the American people have been watching and they have expressed concerns about your age.
President Joe Biden
00:00:44
hat is your judgment. That is not the judgment of the press.
Reporter
00:00:48
They expressed concerns about your mental acuity. They say that you are too old. Mr. president, in December you told me that you believe there are many other Democrats who could defeat Donald Trump. So why does it have to be you now? What? What is your answer?
President Joe Biden
00:01:00
I'm most qualified person in this country to be president United States and finish the job I started.
David Rind
00:01:07
This week, our team in DC reported how close allies of Biden are frustrated with his legal and communications team over how they handled the whole thing from start to finish. Remember, this was supposed to be good news for Team Biden, but the political damage has already been done. Now former President Donald Trump is no stranger to verbal slip ups, either. He's 77. Biden is 81. Both men would be the oldest president in U.S. history if they win the upcoming election and serve a full term. So the question is, how much should that matter for voters come November? My guest this week is CNN's Kylie Atwood. She's been on the campaign trail putting that very question to older voters in South Carolina. From CNN, this is One Thing. I'm David Rind.
David Rind
00:02:04
So, Kylie, I realize the age discussion is a somewhat fraught one, and I've heard in recent days that some people are calling this, you know, a media obsession or something like that. But you spend a lot of time on the campaign trail. This is something that voters talk about, right?
Kylie Atwood
00:02:20
Oh, yeah. Completely. I mean, anecdotally, yes. When you're talking to voters, they bring it up. And statistically, yes. When you look at the polls, they reflect that this is a concern too. We just had an ABC poll out this month, and 86% of Americans polled in that poll, so that they think that Biden, who's 81, is too old to serve another term. And then you had 62% of Americans in that poll say that they believe Trump, who's 77, is too old to serve as president. So that's the statistics. And I have to preface that by saying that, you know, I go to a lot of Nikki Haley events because I cover Nikki Haley primarily for the politics team here at CNN. And she has made going after the age of Biden and Trump central to her pitch to voters since day one.
Nikki Haley
00:03:10
Why do we have to have someone in their 80s running for office? Why can't they let go of the power and let a new generational leader come in there?
Kylie Atwood
00:03:22
She called for mental competency tests for politicians over the age of 75 when she launched her campaign, and then she's leaned into that more recently here.
Nikki Haley
00:03:33
I saw Donald Trump the other day, and he went on and on, mentioning Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley and was talking about the fact that I didn't have security at the Capitol on January 6th.
Kylie Atwood
00:03:46
You know, talking about Trump getting confused when he accidentally called her Nancy Pelosi, confused the two of them during a rally.
Nikki Haley
00:03:54
I've never been in charge of security at the Capitol. I've never even had a job in DC.
President Joe Biden
00:04:01
as, as, asylum officers and over 100 cutting edge inspection machines.
Kylie Atwood
00:04:07
And she's also put out, you know, new campaign slogans, ads in South Carolina going after Biden and Trump as grumpy old man and stumbling seniors.
former President Donald Trump
00:04:17
You know, Ronnie, I'd like to take a cognitive test. I never heard of it before, but whatever it is.
Kylie Atwood
00:04:22
So this is something that she's leaned into. And those who are at her events have been hearing this from her for quite some time now.
David Rind
00:04:28
Yeah, that's kind of core to her message. She's going after these two, who are senior citizens, and there's a lot of senior citizens in South Carolina that she is trying to pitch herself to. So how are they receiving that argument?
Kylie Atwood
00:04:43
Well, what I found in a conversations with a lot like dozens of older voters in South Carolina was really twofold. First of all, those who were at Nikki Haley events, for the most part, agreed with her pitch to be the next generational leader. And her argument that, you know, Americans shouldn't have to be deciding between, two men who are going to be in their 80s during their presidency because they agree with her that there is some decline that happens when politicians or when anyone gets older, for that matter.
Kylie Atwood
00:05:21
Remind me how old you are.
Maureen Bulger
00:05:22
I'm 69. I'll be 70 in August.
Kylie Atwood
00:05:26
Exciting. And you moved to South Carolina to retire here, right?
Maureen Bulger
00:05:30
Yes. We move down in 2022. We bought a house in here.
Kylie Atwood
00:05:34
And just to kind of, like, bring you into some of those conversations, there was one woman that I spoke with. Her name is Maureen Bolger. She said to me, as we age, your knees don't work the way they used to. Your brain might be sharp, but it takes energy to be the president of the United States, and it takes a lot of fortitude.
Maureen Bulger
00:05:52
I just don't think our country should be with somebody who's going on its way out, when we still have so much young blood, and this country's going to be for what's happened 20 years from now, not just now. This is to keep our country moving in the right direction.
Kylie Atwood
00:06:13
And I spoke with another woman Anna Memmo. She's 61. She talked about the cognitive skills that are important to being president.
Anna Memmo
00:06:22
And I think Nikki has that ability. She's sharp. She has those cognitive skills, and I do I do think that we should question those.
Kylie Atwood
00:06:34
There was one Nikki Haley supporter that I spoke with who said maybe she shouldn't be making this argument, you know, so forcefully. He was saying that he believes that older folks were in their 70s or in their 80s, can serve in Congress.
David Rind
00:06:48
It does strike some people, I guess, ageist right.
Kylie Atwood
00:06:51
It does. But the people who said it was an age just argument were mostly Trump supporters. You know, one woman that I spoke with said. Essentially that it was just going after seniors and typecasting them and didn't feel great about it.
Carol Carty
00:07:13
It doesn't dissuade me. I just don't think it's the correct attitude to have. You know, you have to take each individual for what they do or how they work. I mean, I happen to think that Trump at his age, is a lot sharper than Biden is at his age. You know, so so.
Kylie Atwood
00:07:33
So when she cast them both as grumpy old men or as stumbling seniors, these are the things that.
Carol Carty
00:07:39
It's what it's typecasting. Typecasting the seniors. And that's not right because we're individuals.
Fred
00:07:47
I don't think she has anything else she can say that's bad about them. That's the problem. She's picking the age thing.
Kylie Atwood
00:07:53
But if she. But ironically, then when I asked her if she would vote for Nikki Haley if she wasn't making this argument, she said absolutely not. She's firmly a Trump supporter.
Carol Carty
00:08:05
I'm old, so I'm stubborn. You know, I'm not saying.
Kylie Atwood
00:08:09
You're entitled to be stubborn when you're older.
Carol Carty
00:08:10
Yeah....
Kylie Atwood
00:08:11
You and they view age in a very specific way. They only have concerns about it when it comes to Biden, and they don't have concerns about it when it comes to Trump, even though of course, they're only a few years apart.
David Rind
00:08:28
Right. And these conversations took place before the special counsel report about Biden.
Kylie Atwood
00:08:35
That's right.
David Rind
00:08:35
But has he been on the trail since that moment? Has that been more of a talking point?
Kylie Atwood
00:08:40
Not really.
Nikki Haley
00:08:42
The party that dismisses their 80 year old candidates is the party that will win press without a doubt. The Democrats are waking up to that now.
Kylie Atwood
00:08:52
It's just been part of her pitch to voters consistently, so it doesn't feel like it is a new topic for her on the campaign trail.
David Rind
00:09:09
So that's what some of the voters are saying. And you really do hear kind of all over the country that Biden is just not with it mentally. And plenty on the left say that about Trump as well. But like, is that true? Is there any way of knowing that just by listening to them speak?
Kylie Atwood
00:09:25
It's a good question, and the best folks to turn to are medical experts on that. And so when medical experts have talked about this and specifically talked about it, when it comes to, you know, older folks are in their late 70s, early 80s, what they say is that forgetting words is just part of the wear and tear of growing older. And that happens as people grow older. They're going to, you know, get confused here and there. But they also say that that doesn't necessarily indicate that there's a broader problem cognitively.
Kylie Atwood
00:10:03
One thing that we're talking to people about is her argument that the parties need to move on from politicians who are in their 80s and that Americans don't want to, folks who are in their 80s running for president or being president. What do you make of that?
Laura Holtzman
00:10:20
Well, the one supposedly president that is over 80 is in bad shape. I mean, he's got dementia. It's pathetic.
Kylie Atwood
00:10:30
It's probably, you know, not a medical reality that that voters are looking at all that closely, particularly Trump voters who really want to, you know, latch on to any confusion that Biden has made recently, even though Trump has his fair share of confusing moments, as you pointed out.
David Rind
00:10:52
Right. And it's a very different conversation when you talk about the people that just think that, you know, late 70s and early 80 year old shouldn't be in charge of the country versus whether they can actually do the job.
Kylie Atwood
00:11:06
100%. And the doing the job part is the really important meat of the matter here.
Kylie Atwood
00:11:16
What do you make of that kind of generational argument?
Carol Carty
00:11:18
It depends on the 80 year old. I mean, Fred is 82 and he's sharp as a tack. And then there are 82 year olds who aren't we.
Kylie Atwood
00:11:27
Don't like, you know, we've seen older politicians have to use wheelchairs, you know, whether or not they can hop on and off a stage to give, speeches as sprightly as the younger politicians, that that doesn't really matter so much as if they can actually be on top of the pressing national security matters, domestic policy matters and all of that. And, you know, Nikki Haley makes the argument that because there's natural cognitive decline, we just shouldn't be putting people that old in that position. But, you know, other folks would disagree and say that they come with a heck of a lot of experience, and perhaps they're best poised to be in that job because they've been around the block a time or two.
David Rind
00:12:18
Right. And so, putting aside the age question, you know, as we talk about whether Trump will just continue his march toward the nomination, I guess I'm wondering, like, is there anybody still on the fence that has been swayed by Nikki Haley in the last couple of weeks?
Kylie Atwood
00:12:32
I've got to say, I speak to very few voters in South Carolina who are undecided. When I was in Iowa, even when I was in New Hampshire, I would go to events and there would be undecided voters at campaign events. Now, in South Carolina, when I'm at Haley events, those folks are voting for Haley. When I meet Trump voters in the state, those folks are voting for Trump.
former President Donald Trump
00:12:55
I think we're going to have a big victory. It's looking very good, looking very strong. In fact, a lot of people are saying, what the hell is you wasting your time for? And I agree with that.
Kylie Atwood
00:13:06
So that leads us to believe that Trump probably does have the, commanding lead in the state that polls are showing right now. We don't know that for sure. You know, polls are a snapshot in time, but it just doesn't look like there's a lot of room for minds to be changed.
Nikki Haley
00:13:30
He's got his first court case, March 25th. March and April. He's in one key court case. May and June. He's in another. He's already said he's going to spend most of this year in a courtroom, not on a campaign trail. That's not a way you win.
Kylie Atwood
00:13:45
One thing that her campaign does say about South Carolina, and this will be interesting, you know, to watch on primary day. They think that there are factions of the electorate that she's going to do well with that maybe aren't reached in typical polls. So folks who have moved to South Carolina recently, you know, they think those folks are likely to support her. And they're also trying to get South Carolina. Nonvoters, who typically only vote in a general election to vote in the primary for her. But the question is, will they actually be able to do that? And how she does in South Carolina's probably likely to determine if she's actually going to go on to Super Tuesday. She's said that it is fully her intention to do that. But if she gets smoked in her home state, I think her campaign will have some, real soul searching to do.
David Rind
00:14:35
Yeah. Hard questions. We'll see. Thank you. Kylie.
Kylie Atwood
00:14:38
Thank you.
David Rind
00:14:49
One thing is a production of CNN Audio. This episode was produced by Paola Ortiz and me, David Rind. Our senior producer is Faiz Jamil. Our supervising producer is Greg Peppers. Matt Dempsey is our production manager. Dan Dzula is our technical director. And Steve Lickteig is the executive producer of CNN Audio. We get support from Haley Thomas, Alex Manasseri, Robert Mathers, John Dianora, Leni Steinhart, James Andrest, Nichole Pesaru, and Lisa Namerow. Special thanks to Katie Hinman. By the way, CNN will have lots of coverage of the South Carolina primary this coming Saturday. Check it out at CNN.com and we'll be back on Sunday. Talk to you later.
