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NYT Faces Heat After Claiming Biden Has 'Striking Stamina' Despite Repeated Senior Moments

Sarah Arnold
Sarah Arnold  |  June 04, 2023 7:34 PM

The New York Times faces criticism after publishing an article attempting to paint President Joe Biden as a young, vibrant man who never embarrasses himself or the country. 

Titled "Inside the Complicated Reality of Being America's Oldest President," reporters Peter Baker, Michael Shear, Katie Rogers, and Zolan Kanno-Youngs fawned over Biden's achievements, describing him as a "fit, sharp" 80-year-old who has "striking stamina." 

"The two Joe Bidens coexist in the same octogenarian president: Sharp and wise at critical moments, the product of decades of seasoning, able to rise to the occasion even in the dead of night to confront a dangerous world," the article read. 

Despite acknowledging Biden's diminishing cognitive and physical health, the reporters downplayed his repeated public gaffes and instead said the president was just a "quirky" man. 

"Yet a little slower, a little softer, a little harder of hearing, a little more tentative in his walk, a little more prone to occasional lapses of memory," the article continued. "He can be quirky; when children visit, he may randomly pull a book of William Butler Yeats off his desk and start reading Irish poetry to them."

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The article went as far as claiming Biden— who doesn't do anything until 11 am and nothing past 4 pm, including weekends— exercises five days a week and does not drink, adding that the senior president is "fit and trim." 

"He has at times exhibited striking stamina, such as when he flew to Poland then boarded a nine-hour train ride to make a secret visit to Kyiv, spent hours on the ground, then endured another nine-hour train ride and a flight to Warsaw," the article read. "A study of his schedule by Mr. Biden's aides shows that he has traveled slightly more in the first few months of his third year in office than Mr. Obama did in his."

Critics of the NYT article, however, called the reporter's bluff over Biden's— who has fallen several times and forgotten where he was more often than not— so-called "perfect" health.