Age became a political issue in the year 2024

The discovery by a local newspaper of “confused” Texas Republican Representative Kay Granger , 81, in an assisted care facility on Saturday after she dropped out of sight last month has retriggered concerns about aging lawmakers clinging to their powerful roles in the face of fears about diminishing competence. Age became a political issue in 2024 as in no other election cycle in the modern era of American politics, touching on former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Peloisi, the late California Representative Dianne Feinstein, President Joe Biden, President-elect Donald Trump and other aging leaders.

With the presidential election now in the rear-view mirror, a troubling picture is increasingly emerging of Washington.

A Wall Street Journal investigation revealed this past week that Biden White House aides were clearing the president’s schedule for entire days at a time when the incumbent president was either too tired or for other reasons unable to take meetings with key staff, a problem that had begun to emerge less than six months into Joe Biden’s presidency.

One Democratic committee chairman noted that he received just a single phone call from the president during the entire four years of Biden’s White House - far lower than his Democratic predecessor. That chairman, Adam Smith, was one of many allies of the Democratic president who expressed frustration to the Journal about a president who appeared to be insulated from the outside world and more reliant on aides than others.

The White House issued weak denials of the Journal’s reporting, but could not refute that Biden himself was unable to formulate clear sentences in many public appearances, including during his now-famous debate with Donald Trump, which triggered an avalanche of calls for him to drop out of the presidential race. Nor did a White House spokesman, Andrew Bates, deny that the Biden campaign had sought to hire a voice coach for the president, who is known for mumbling and getting off track.

It’s far from an issue isolated to the White House, however. Congress, too, is now facing direct accusations of becoming something of an assisted-living facility, where lawmakers with diminished faculties are hidden from the public view, either through direct means or through a whisper culture seemingly aided and abetted by a congressional press corps more interested in dramatic shutdown fights or the appearance of Elon Musk. The case of Dianne Feinstein is one obvious example. Feinstein, who died last year, was the subject of a piece in which a currently-serving (at the time of its writing) member of Congress from her state of California recalled to the San Francisco Chronicle having to reintroduce themselves to Feinstein multiple times at the same event. The senator was experiencing severe memory issues, according to the member of her own party, who asked not to be identified in the story. In 2017, STAT News reported that a Capitol Hill-area pharmacy owner revealed having filled prescriptions for medications used to treat Alzheimer’s for members of Congress.

Punchbowl’s Melanie Zanona tweeted last week that 79-year-old congressman David Scott of Georgia had loudly cursed at a photographer as he was pushed in his wheelchair through the halls of Congress that day, questioning what gave the reporter the “right” to take his photo. The press is a common sight in the halls of the House of Representatives, where video and audio recordings are allowed (with some exceptions and restrictions). Freelance journalist Ken Klippenstein reported a day later that Scott’s own bouts of confusion were an “open secret” among congressional aides and lobbyists. And then there was the revelation Friday by the Dallas Express that a Texas congresswoman had apparently vanished from public view entirely. Her location is not a secret — anymore — only due to reporting by the news outlet which broke the story. The Express revealed that 81-year-old Kay Granger, a Republican, was discovered in a memory-care unit at a local assisted living home for seniors. No announcement had been made to the constituents of her district, even thought the lawmaker was absent from votes for months.

Granger, who did not run for reelection this year, remains Tarrant County’s absentee representative in Congress until the end of the year in a chamber where her party holds a single-digit majority. There’s already talk of having her elected replacement sworn in early, a result of the newspaper’s shocking report. Granger was entirely absent throughout this month’s budget fight which threatened to shut down the government. The Express further reported that her district and Washington DC offices closed down before Thanksgiving with no signs of reopening. Voicemails from constituents, who often contact local representatives for assistance with government agencies and programs, were unanswered. Her old home is seemingly abandoned. A reporter who covered the story for the Express learned that Granger ended up in the assisted-living facility she was found “wandering lost and confused” in the district she represents.

Taylor Manziel, executive director of Tradition Senior Living in Fort Worth where Granger was tracked down told the news outlet: “This is her home.” Granger will not be returning to the 119th Congress when it forms in January. David Scott, who ranted at reporters about taking his photo at the Capitol, will. He won re-election by more than 40 points in his deep-blue Atlanta district. Unlike the Texas congresswoman, Scott was present and voted during the funding bill fight this past week. As for Granger, her recent experience was a “sad and humiliating way to end her political career. Sad that nobody cared enough to ‘take away the keys’ before she reached this moment. And a sad commentary on the congressional gerontocracy,” Rolando Garcia, a member of Texas’s state GOP executive committee, wrote on X.

Incoming president-elect Donald Trump is no stranger to concerns about his behavior, competence and aging. He will become the oldest person in American history to occupy the White House. He has come up with a name for his frequent tendency to ramble nonsensically onstage at his rallies: “The Weave.” How many more people in positions of power in Washington are grappling already or will soon be facing the same physical and mental issues Joe Biden struggled with, which had a tremendous impact on his party? And will either party take the steps necessary to address voter concerns about an increasingly troubling aspect of the status quo? The Democrats half-heartedly took some of those steps in 2022, led by Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi and her announcement that she would not seek another leadership term. But she resisted those same concerns in her party’s caucus elections this past week, endorsing the successful candidacy of 74-year-old cancer-afflicted Gerry Connolly to serve as chair of the powerful role of ranking Democrat on the Oversight Committee over the far younger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“These are the people that are running the country,” D.C.-area Mike Kim said back in 2017. “It makes you kind of sit back and say, ‘Wow, they’re making the highest laws of the land and they might not even remember what happened yesterday.’”