Trump tweet mocks Biden as old and disabled as both candidates vie for senior voters
President Donald Trump tweeted a meme late Tuesday of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, mocking the former vice president as elderly and disabled as both candidates compete for the votes of older Americans.
The meme shows Biden photoshopped in a wheelchair inside a nursing home, with the Biden campaign logo altered to read “Biden for resident.”
In 2016, Trump won the majority of votes from people 65 and older compared to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, according to exit polling. Trump, 74, is the oldest president ever elected and recent polling shows him neck-and-neck with Biden, 77, among that voting bloc, including those in the crucial swing states of Arizona and Florida.
Biden has tried to capitalize on this apparent opportunity with older adults, urging them to vote for him over Trump. No Democratic presidential candidate has won among voters aged 65 or older since Al Gore in 2000, Newsweek reported.
“You’re expendable. You’re forgettable. You’re virtually nobody. That’s how (Trump) sees seniors,” Biden told the crowd at a senior center in Florida on Tuesday, The Washington Post reported. “The only senior that Donald Trump cares about — the only senior — is the senior Donald Trump.”
Trump has also tried to appeal to older voters in a series of campaign ads. One says that the Trump administration “protected[ed] our seniors” and features Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, saying, “I can’t imagine that anybody could be doing more.” Fauci later said he declines to endorse political candidates and accused the Trump campaign of “in effect, harassing me” by including him in political ads.
In a video posted on Twitter last week, Trump called himself a senior and promised to make the COVID-19 treatment he received at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center available to the rest of Americans.
“You’re gonna get the same medicine, you’re gonna get it free. No charge,” Trump said.
Trump has faced criticism over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed older Americans at higher rates.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted Oct. 6-9 with 1,014 adults found Trump and Biden evenly split among older voters with Biden having 49% and Trump 48%. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll conducted Sept. 30-Oct. 1 with 800 registered voters and a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points showed Biden with a larger lead with people 65 and older. Sixty-two percent of seniors backed Biden compared to 35% who supported Trump.
This story was originally published October 14, 2020 at 9:43 AM with the headline "Trump tweet mocks Biden as old and disabled as both candidates vie for senior voters."