Los Angeles Times

Doyle McManus: Biden's memory is failing. So is Trump's. The question is whose flaws are more dangerous

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks, urging Congress to pass the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024.

WASHINGTON — In a career that spans more than half a century, President Joe Biden has long been known all too well for mangling words, names and dates in verbal pratfalls known, perhaps gently, as gaffes.

During the 2020 presidential campaign, then-President Donald Trump publicly charged that Biden, then only 77, was suffering from "dementia." The insult didn't stick; Biden campaigned effectively enough to defeat Trump that November.

But the controversy over the president's mental fitness has only intensified as he has sought a second term.

Biden's age, as the oldest man ever to serve as president, inescapably weighs on voters'

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