NEW YORK — A large portion of Americans who follow President Joe Biden see something beyond debate stage missteps and prime-time gaffes: themselves.
The debate over the 81-year-old Democrat’s suitability for another term is particularly resonating among other older Americans who, like him, want to stay working.
“People told me to retire too,” says 89-year-old D’yan Forest, a comedian from New York. “But you have to keep working, no matter what.”
Forest has stumbled upon the occasional joke and is finding it harder to remember her lines. But she is busier than ever, drawing audiences and laughed a lot with flat jokes and ukulele-strung songs. She dismisses Biden’s debate performance as a “blip” and grows angry that a single night would cause people to look past the advantages of age.
People aged 75 and over are the fastest growing age group in the U.S. workforce. All told, about one in five Americans 65 and older is employed, according to the Census Bureau.
Many seniors are wary of a peer being pushed aside because of their age. Like Forest, they believe it should be up to the employee to decide whether to leave the workplace.
“He has the experience,” she says. “He has the judgment. He has seen everything.”
But even among the growing group of older workers, there are those who want Biden to give up.
“Forget it! The party’s over!” says Betty Ann Talomie, an 81-year-old from Seneca Falls, New York, who was born just a few weeks after the president. “Some people can’t accept that it’s time.”
Talomie worked her last shift as a waitress in January. She still loved the regulars, loved her coworkers, and enjoyed having something to help her get through the dull winter days. But she started to feel more tired toward the end of her shift and knew it was time.
“It’s like everything at this age: it’s twice as hard to do anything,” says Talomie.
She plans to vote for Donald Trump, just as she did in 2020, but says he is also ready to retire.
“I think they should both sit in deck chairs,” she says.
Biden insists he don’t step aside. Trump, 78, has dodged similar questions about his age. If elected and serving a full term, he would ultimately replace Biden as the oldest president in U.S. history.
Eli Trujillo, an 87-year-old barber from Cheyenne, Wyoming, sees Biden’s age taking its toll, but he also knows he’s not cutting hair as quickly as he used to or working as many hours.
Who is he to judge the president’s decision?
“If he thinks he can still do it,” Trujillo says, “I don’t blame him.”
Older employees see widespread age discrimination Both in the workplace and for those who continue to work, questions about pension plans are a constant source of frustration.
“They look at me and say, ‘Why don’t you retire? You can take it easy,'” says Paul Durietz, a 76-year-old teacher in Gurnee, Illinois. “I just like teaching,” he tells them.
Durietz, who teaches social studies to seventh-grade students, may come home a little more tired than he used to, but he says working into old age is no longer a problem.
Polls have shown that older Americans are more likely than younger Americans to have a favorable opinion of Biden and are less likely to say he should withdraw to allow another candidate to run. But even among older people, Biden is subject to considerable skepticism.
Six in 10 people over 70 were in favor of Biden’s withdrawal from the race in a survey released wednesday by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Harriet Newman Cohen is one of them. Although she will vote for Biden if he stays, she finds his appearances painful to watch and fears he has lost all sense of self.
“What’s happening now,” says the 91-year-old lawyer, “is giving older people a bad name.”
Cohen says she hasn’t slowed down at all and finds that age has brought her “more sharpness, more enthusiasm, more energy.” While she bristles at the idea of anyone suggesting she quit the work she loves, she believes it’s time for Biden to step aside.
“I’ve just been so lucky,” Cohen says. “But the president hasn’t been so lucky.”
While many young people cannot imagine working longer than necessary, older workers often say they cannot imagine not working.
While some who work into their 70s, 80s, or even beyond do so because their finances force them to, many others do so out of personal preference. Surveys consistently show job satisfaction increases with age and for those who love their work, it is a difficult decision to quit.
Jim Oppegard, a 94-year-old school bus driver from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, is unsure whether he will return to work next month as the new school year begins.
He loves the kids and the extra money he can donate, and he continues to take annual exams to make sure he’s up to the job. The Guinness World Records certificate awarded him earlier this year the world’s oldest bus driveran honor that made him think about his future.
He has considered retiring before, but has always gone back. This time it could be different.
“There’s something to be said for coming out on top,” says Oppegard.
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Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and https://twitter.com/sedensky
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Linley Sanders, Associated Press editor in Washington, contributed to this report.