Economist Paul Krugman: 'Disgusting' obsession with Biden’s age ignores Trump’s 'incoherent' rambling

09 February 2024

Thursday, February 8 marked the release of special counsel Robert K. Hur's in-depth report on classified government documents found in President Joe Biden's home in Delaware.

Hur concluded that "no criminal charges are warranted," but his comment's on Biden's age have infuriated the 81-year-old president and his supporters. The special counsel described Biden as a "well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

In scathing analysis published by the New York Times on February 9, liberal economist Paul Krugman slams Hur's comments as ageist and "disgusting."

Krugman recalls, "As it happens, I had an hour-long off-the-record meeting with Biden in August. I can't talk about the content, but I can assure you that he's perfectly lucid, with a good grasp of events. And outside that personal experience, on several occasions when I thought he was making a serious misjudgment — like his handling of the debt ceiling crisis — he was right and I was wrong. And my God, consider his opponent."

The "opponent" Krugman is referring to is, of course, 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, now 77.

Krugman finds it laughable that Trump's supporters obsess over Biden's age when Trump confused former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley during a recent speech.

"When I listen to Donald Trump's speeches," the liberal Times columnist writes, "I find myself thinking about my father, who died in 2013…. During his last year, my father suffered from sundowning: He was lucid during the day, but would sometimes become incoherent and aggressive after dark. If we're going to be doing amateur psychological diagnoses of elderly politicians, shouldn't we be talking about a candidate who has confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi and whose ranting and raving sometimes reminds me of my father on a bad evening?"

Krugman adds, "So to everyone who's piling on Biden right now, stop and look in the mirror. And ask yourself what you are doing."

Read Paul Krugman's full New York Times analysis at this link (subscription required).

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