The Washington Examiner, September 2023
First lady Jill Biden‘s COVID-19 diagnosis is bringing renewed attention to President Joe Biden‘s age and the pandemic-era policies he at one time championed ahead of next year’s election.
Although the first lady’s COVID-19 case is mild, her diagnosis has cast a cloud of uncertainty over the health of 80-year-old Joe Biden, who spent part of the weekend with her at Rehoboth Beach. He has tested negative multiple times, according to the White House, and is continuing with his regular schedule, but the diagnosis has raised the “salience” of the president’s health and could “worry voters concerned about his age,” according to Costas Panagopoulos, Northeastern University’s political science chairman.
The diagnosis, which coincides with a national rise in cases, cuts both ways though, he warned, and simultaneously reminds voters of former President Donald Trump‘s management of the pandemic and may “alarm those who perceived Trump’s response to be poor.”
