‘Two men three years apart’: Democrats highlight Trump’s mental lapses after Biden report

The special counsel Robert Hur’s contention that Joe Biden suffers from memory problems caused by advanced age prompted delight among the president’s Republican opponents – and pushback from Democrats pointing out how often Donald Trump has his own lapses, and how dangerous they are to the country.

Speaking on MSNBC amid shockwaves from the release of Hur’s report on Biden’s retention of classified information after his time as a senator and as vice-president, Jen Psaki, Biden’s first White House press secretary, emphasised: “The choice in all likelihood here is going to be between two men who are three years apart.”

Already the oldest president ever, Biden is 81 and would be 86 at the end of a second term. Trump, the probable Republican presidential nominee this year, will turn 78 in June.

Biden’s gaffes – including calling the president of Egypt the president of Mexico in the same Thursday remarks in which he angrily attacked Hur – are relentlessly scrutinised.

To some extent, so are those of Trump – who recently confused Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary, with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, president of Turkey. He also confused Nikki Haley, his last remaining rival for the Republican nomination, with Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House speaker when Trump sent a mob to attack Congress on 6 January 2021.

But despite Trump’s frequent mistakes, polling has consistently shown that more Americans think Biden is too old than think the same about Trump.

This week, before the release of Hur’s report, the progressive political strategist Rachel Bitecofer said: “Polling data consistently shows that its Biden, not Trump, voters perceive as having mental decline. No, REALLY. The reason is, Republicans have been pounding that false narrative