Donald Trump calls Joe Biden a ‘brain-dead zombie’ in birthday row
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Donald Trump’s campaign branded Joe Biden a “brain-dead zombie” after footage showed him appearing to wander off during a photo call with leaders at the G7 summit.
It came after Mr Biden’s campaign team acknowledged Mr Trump on his 78th birthday with a sardonic list of 78 “accomplishments”, including his previous bankruptcy filings, impeachments, and 34-count conviction.
“Happy birthday, Donald. You’re a crook, a failure, a fraud, and a threat to our democracy, economy, rights, and future,” said James Singer, campaign spokesman.
The US president appeared to wander away during a photo shoot with world leaders at the G7 summit in Italy this week.
Mr Biden’s aides said he had been speaking to someone off-camera, but the Trump campaign ridiculed him over the episode on Friday.
“From Italy to the United Kingdom to New York, millions of people around the world woke up to headlines about crooked Joe Biden’s cognitive decline on full display at the G7 Summit,” Karoline Leavitt, Mr Trump’s spokesman, said.
Age has become a central focus of November’s 2024 White House race, although Jill Biden claimed the presidential election was “not about age” as she hit the campaign trail for a “Seniors for Biden” initiative aimed at turning out voters aged 65 and above.
The US first lady said her husband was a “healthy, wise 81-year-old ready and willing to work for you every day” as she touted the benefits of his decades in public office.
It comes as polls show an inverse of traditional generational voting trends, with Mr Biden making inroads among over 65-year-olds and Mr Trump gaining among young voters.
Kicking off her three-day campaign, Dr Biden said her husband and Mr Trump, who turned 78 on Friday, are “essentially the same age”.
“This isn’t just about stopping an extremist, and this election is most certainly not about age,” she told a crowd in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
“Joe and that other guy are essentially the same age. Let’s not be fooled.”
The “Seniors for Biden” effort comes as the Biden campaign attempts to quell concerns about the president’s age while also courting senior voters.
Voters aged 65 and older voted for Mr Trump by a five-point margin in 2020, according to CNN exit polls.
But recent polls have shown a shift among older voters towards Mr Biden, who held a nine-point lead against Trump with the group in a recent New York Times/Siena survey and a 12-point lead in a Quinnipiac University study last month.
Campaign advisers have suggested the trend is due to the president’s proposal to safeguard welfare benefits for retirees, as well as policies geared towards reducing the cost of prescription medication.
Biden insiders have also argued that their warnings about the threat Mr Trump poses to democratic institutions resonates more with older voters.
However, serious concerns for the White House remain, with a majority of Americans suggesting Mr Biden is too old to govern effectively in a second term.
A stark poll released on Thursday found half of the US voting public think the Democrat will forget where he is in his upcoming televised debate against Mr Trump.
Some 41 per cent also said they thought Mr Biden would walk the wrong way off the debate stage and 40 per cent predicted he will have problems standing up for the debate, according to the survey by JL Partners.
Mr Trump, who is three years Mr Biden’s junior, has trodden a delicate balance on the age issue, attacking the president’s mental acuity while insisting it is not age-related.
“If you go back 25 years, he wasn’t the sharpest tack either,” he said last year.
Warned against complacency
Democrats have warned the Biden campaign against complacency, with polls suggesting Mr Trump’s criminal conviction for falsifying business records has done little to move the race beyond a dead-heat.
Poll after poll has also shown Mr Biden’s winning 2020 voter coalition weakening, with support waning among young voters and ethnic minorities.
Dr Biden has become one of the White House’s most active campaign surrogates, with planned stops in the battleground states of Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona, as well as Minnesota and California.
Mr Trump has not publicly marked his birthday. He suggested he would rather not spotlight the milestone during a rally in Las Vegas over the weekend.
“There’s a certain point where you don’t want to hear ‘happy birthday’. You just want to pretend the day doesn’t exist,” he said.
