Joe Biden Appears to Be a 'Superager,' Doctors Say

As another presidential election cycle looks set to be dominated by discussions of age and mental fitness, an opinion piece for The Hill published on Sunday suggested that President Joe Biden could be a "superager," citing doctors who evaluated the president's medical history.

Biden, 81, is seeking reelection to a second term as president in the 2024 election and is all but entirely assured of receiving the Democratic nomination, with his general election prospects for success being dogged by persistent worries among voters that he is too old to hold office. Former President Donald Trump, who is only roughly four years younger than Biden, is overwhelmingly tipped to secure the GOP nomination, setting up a 2020 rematch in the general election.

At 78 years old when he was inaugurated in January 2021, Biden is the oldest individual to ever hold the office of the presidency and would be 86 by the end of a hypothetical second term. Citing numerous well-documented gaffes during speeches and other such evidence, critics and opponents of the president have said that he is too old and not mentally fit for office. Supporters, in turn, have counterargued that Biden is in strong mental and physical shape for his advanced age, and attributed his gaffes and other speech issues to a life-long struggle with speaking problems.

Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment.

Writing for The Hill in an opinion piece published Sunday, titled, "Is Joe Biden a superager?", medical experts S. Jay Olshansky and Dr. Bradley Willcox, as well as former Texas Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes, argued that the basic facts of Biden's age might be "the wrong questions to ask." Instead, the piece posits that, based on the available information about the president's health and mental fitness, he might be what is known as a "superager," a subgroup of the elderly who retain the acuity of people decades younger well into their 80s.

"The geriatricians evaluating Biden's medical history in 2020 found evidence to suggest he could be a 'superager' — a subgroup of people aged 80 years and older that operate physically and cognitively at a level that is common among those much younger," the piece said. "There is no clinical evidence for cognitive decline in President Biden — despite armchair gerontologists declaring otherwise. It may be tempting to conclude that such evidence does not exist because an extensive battery of diagnostic assessments of cognitive functioning has not been ordered (to our knowledge) by his personal physician, and if done, something significant might be revealed."

Trump has made one such test public. In 2018, Dr. Ronny Jackson, then the White House physician, administered the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to him, a test designed to screen for mild cognitive dysfunction. Trump scored 30 out of 30 on the test, which Jackson stated was evidence of the president's sound cognitive abilities. "The president is mentally very sharp, very intact," Jackson told reporters at the time.

However, some medical professionals caution that the MoCA is not a comprehensive assessment of cognitive function and is typically used to detect early signs of dementia, not to measure intelligence or an individual's fitness for a specific job. Moreover, cognitive abilities can change over time.

As the Hill's op-ed says, Biden has not publicly released specific cognitive test scores. However, his physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, has consistently reported that Biden is healthy and "fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency." In December 2021, following a routine physical examination, Dr. O'Connor noted that Biden was experiencing some stiffness and gait irregularity, which he attributed to spinal arthritis and a minor foot fracture from late 2020. There was no mention of cognitive impairment in the medical report.

Others have been more skeptical. In 2020, Dr. Marc Siegel, a Fox medical correspondent and clinical professor at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, told host Sean Hannity that he was concerned about Biden and said that he should have an assessment, though he declined to make a diagnosis.

He raised several issues in Biden's medical history, including his age, a brain aneurysm and repair in 1988, and his reported atrial fibrillation and anticoagulation. These issues, he said, increased Biden's risk of so-called mini-strokes.

The Hill op-ed said: "But presidents are evaluated by their physicians just like everyone else — cognitive functioning tests are not done unless the physician suspects a problem or if requested by the patient. Even then, a screening test of cognitive function is done first, followed by other more in-depth diagnostic assessments if the screen shows a worrisome score. Since Biden's personal physician seems not to have felt cognitive screening testing was medically indicated, this represents evidence that such issues are unlikely to be present consistent with his family history of dementia-free longevity."

Polling data has shown that voters have expressed concerns about the age and mental fitness of both presidential candidates. A Politico/Morning Consult poll conducted in July 2021 found that 48 percent of voters disagreed with the statement that Biden is "mentally fit," while 46 percent disagreed with the statement that he is "in good health." Similarly, a September 2020 Hill-HarrisX poll found that 56 percent of voters believed that Trump showed signs of mental decline.

These concerns about age and mental fitness are not limited to Biden and Trump. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2020 found that 63 percent of registered voters said it was important for presidential candidates to release detailed personal health information.

Update, 2/8/24, 7:45 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.