Too old to work? Some Americans on the job late in life bristle at calls for Biden to step aside
Eli Trujillo poses inside his barbershop in Cheyenne, Wyo., Thursday, July 18, 2024. Trujillo, 87, says he doesn’t work as many hours or cut hair as fast as he once did but isn’t one to judge whether President Joe Biden should continue to seek re-election. Credit: AP/Mead Gruver
NEW YORK — A swath of Americans watching President Joe Biden is seeing something beyond debate-stage stumbles and prime-time miscues: Themselves.
Debate about the 81-year-old Democrat’s fitness for another term is especially resonating with other older Americans who, like him, want to stay on the job.
“People were telling me I should retire too,” says 89-year-old D’yan Forest, a New York comedian. “But you’ve got to keep working, no matter what.”
Forest has stumbled on an occasional joke and finds it more difficult to memorize her lines. But she’s busier than ever, drawing audiences and getting big laughs with bawdy jokes and ukulele-strummed songs. She dismisses Biden’s debate performance as a “blip” and grows angry that a single night would cause people to look past all the benefits age brings.
People 75 and older are the fastest-growing age group in the U.S. workforce. All told, about one in five Americans aged 65 and older are employed, according to the Census Bureau.
Many older adults are wary of seeing a peer shoved aside because of his age and, like Forest, insist it should be up to each individual when they decide to exit the workplace.
“He has the experience,” she says. “He has judgment. He’s seen it all.”
Harriet Newman Cohen, 91-years-old, whose long list of famous clients includes Andrew Cuomo and Tom Brady, is in her law office in Times Square, New York City, on Thursday, July 18, 2024. She says she still works "24-7" and thinks her age has been a benefit, that with it has come acuity, energy and keenness. "I've just been so lucky," she says, "but the president has not been so lucky." She is a devout Democrat and will give Biden her vote if he persists, but would like to see him step aside. "I would call it elder abuse, but he's doing it to himself," she said. Credit: AP/Ted Shaffrey
Even among that growing population of older workers, though, some want Biden to give up.
“Forget it! The party’s over!” says Betty Ann Talomie, an 81-year-old from Seneca Falls, New York, who was born just a few weeks after the president. “Some people can’t face that it’s time.”
Talomie worked her last shift as a waitress in January. She still treasured regular customers, loved her co-workers and relished having something to occupy boring winter days. But she started feeling more tired at the end of her shift and knew the time had come.
“It’s like anything at this age: It’s twice as hard to do anything,” says Talomie.
D'yan Forest, 89, who holds the Guinness World Record for Oldest Working Female Comedian, poses in her apartment, Thursday, July 19, 2024, in New York. Forest, a bawdy, ukulele-playing firecracker of a woman who, like Biden, has heard people say "Why don't you retire?" is furious hearing people call for Biden to give up and enthusiastically supports him. "Keep working," she says, "no matter what." Credit: AP/Ted Shaffrey
She plans to vote for Donald Trump, as she did in 2020, but says he’s ready for retirement too.
“I think they should both sit in lounge chairs,” she says.
Biden insists he’s not stepping aside. Trump, 78, has escaped similar questioning about his age. If he is elected and serves a full term, he would eventually supplant Biden as the oldest president in U.S. history.
Eli Trujillo, an 87-year-old barber in Cheyenne, Wyoming, sees age taking its toll on Biden, but he knows he doesn’t cut hair as fast as he used to or log as many hours either.
Who is he to judge when it comes to the president’s decision?
“If he feels he could still do it,” Trujillo says, “I don’t hold it against him.”
Older employees see rampant age discrimination in their workplaces, and for those who remain on the job, being asked about retirement plans is a constant aggravation.
“They look at me and say, ’Why don’t you retire? You can take it easy,” says Paul Durietz, a 76-year-old teacher in Gurnee, Illinois. “I just like teaching,” he tells them.
Durietz, who teaches seventh-grade social studies, may come home a little more tired than he used to, but he says working into later life is no longer a big deal.
Polls have shown older Americans are more likely than younger people to have a favorable view of Biden and are less likely to say he should withdraw to allow another candidate. But even among older people, Biden faces steep skepticism.
Six in 10 people over 70 favored Biden’s withdrawal from the race in a survey released Wednesday by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Harriet Newman Cohen is one of them. Though she will vote for Biden if he remains, she finds his appearances painful to watch and fears he has lost all sense of self awareness.
“What’s happening now,” the 91-year-old attorney says, “is giving older age such a bad rap.”
Cohen says she hasn’t slowed at all and finds old age has brought her “more acuity, more keenness, more energy.” Even as she bristles at the idea of anyone suggesting she retire from the work she loves, she believes the time has come for Biden to step aside.
“I’ve just been so lucky,” Cohen says. “But the president has not been so lucky.”
Though many younger people can’t imagine working longer than they have to, older workers often say they can’t imagine themselves not remaining on the job.
Though some who work into their 70s, 80s and beyond do so because their finances force them to, many others do so out of preference. Polls consistently show job satisfaction grows with age and for those who love their work, deciding to quit is a tough decision.
Jim Oppegard, a 94-year-old school bus driver in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, is wrestling with whether to return to work next month as a new school year begins.
He loves the children and having extra cash to donate, and he continues to pass annual exams to make sure he’s up to the job. The Guinness World Records certified him earlier this year as the world’s oldest bus driver, an honor that made him reflect on his future.
He’s considered retiring before but has always gone back. This time might be different.
“There’s something to be said,” Oppegard says, “for going out on top.”
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Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and https://twitter.com/sedensky
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