Careful what you wish for, Republicans. With Harris, Trump’s age becomes the issue | Opinion

Republicans have been pouncing for months on Joe Biden’s age and mental fitness to serve another four-year term. They got what they wanted after the first presidential debate: the country — and, most importantly, Democratic leadership — to doubt the president should even be on the ballot in November.

Now that Biden has withdrawn his reelection bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, the GOP was successful — perhaps to its own detriment.

With Biden out, Donald Trump, whose mental slip-ups have so far been overshadowed by Biden’s, becomes the oldest presidential nominee in U.S. history. Trump is 78, not that much younger than the 81-year-old Biden.

Trump might look vigorous next to the frail-looking Biden, but that’s only by comparison. Next to Harris, 59, or another Democratic nominee, Trump runs the risk of looking feeble and part of the country’s old political guard that Americans hope to eclipse.

Trust the Democrats to re-circulate recent clips of Trump messing up people’s names – i.e. mixing up the name of Hungary’s president with Turkey’s – and his rambling speeches.

Many Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, are now calling on Biden to leave office. This is seemingly meant to stir up more questions about Biden’s fitness to serve than it is to convince a Democratic president to follow suit.

“Let me be clear, if Joe Biden can’t run for re-election, he is not capable of serving as president for the next six months and needs to resign today,” Scott wrote in a statement.

Careful of what you wish for. By continuing to focus on age, the attention can easily turn to the GOP’s standard bearer.

Here’s another unexpected age-related drawback slowly emerging just a day after Harris’ climb to the top of the nominee list: Gen Z voters, who were never big fans of Biden but also want Trump to be defeated, are rising up on social media in Harris’ support. Young voters can be a powerful force — but only if they turn out in November.

Without Biden to own the age issue, Trump will now likely be increasingly under scrutiny for every gaffe he commits, whether age-related or simply the result of an exhaustive campaign schedule. During a speech in January, Trump confused then-primary election contender Nikki Haley with former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He has appeared to confuse Biden’s name with Barack Obama and often said unintelligible sentences during his rallies.

“The simplest of problems we can no longer solve.” Trump said at a New Hampshire rally in January. “We are an institute in a powerful death penalty. We will put this on.”

Huh?

By asking Biden to resign from the White House, Republicans probably hope that Harris, who would assume the presidency, would inherit parts of Biden’s record that have been under attack, mainly the Southern Border and inflation. But, as the likely Democratic nominee, Harris would also go into November as an incumbent with more than three months of potentially showing she can perform on the job. Of course, she could have a disastrous short term in the White House and give the GOP more reasons to vote Democrats out of power.

Days before Biden dropped out, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rejoiced at last week’s National Republican Convention that Biden was “unable to string sentences together” and “not fit to lead.”

“If the Democrats want to go down this road, I think that’s the best possible scenario for Republicans,” DeSantis said about Biden staying in the race, according to Politico.

“I hope he sticks it out.”

Biden didn’t. Now another of Trump’s weaknesses has been exposed. Trump is a convicted felon on 34 charges. He tells lies repeatedly. He tried to overturn the 2020 elections and incited the Jan. 6 riot. He’s vowed to use the White House to seek retribution against his political enemies if reelected.

Now, Trump is also the rambling old guy running for president.

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