How a makeup team helped Biden hide his age from the public – and a Harris aide had a strategy in place in case he died
Former president Joe Biden regularly used makeup to hide his age, and Kamala Harrisโs team had a strategy in place in case he passed while in office, according to a new book written by two political journalists.
The revelations come from an excerpt of the upcoming book Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House, written by The Hillโs Amie Parnes and NBC Newsโs Jonathan Allen.
Biden regularly met with a makeup artist while traveling and before Zoom calls with aides to cover up signs of aging, according to the excerpts reviewed by The Hill. Biden consistently made these appointments, but sometimes canceled the briefings that were meant to follow.
Harrisโs aides also had contingency plans in place in case Biden died in office, Parnes and Allen wrote. This included a spreadsheet of Republican judges whom Donald Trump didnโt appoint. That way, if Harris needed to be sworn in on short notice, it could be done by a judge who isnโt in Trumpโs camp but who Republicans would still see as credible.
Harris wasnโt aware of this spreadsheet, according to the excerpts reviewed by The Hill. However, the aide who put it together left in January 2023 and instructed his colleagues to contact him immediately if Biden passed because he had a strategy prepared.
โIt shows what we had to do to prepare with the unique circumstances we had, which was an eighty-plus-year-old president who was running,โ one Democratic official told Parnes and Allen, according to The Hill.
The Independent has contacted Biden and Harrisโ offices for comment.
Concerns about Bidenโs age โ he was 82 when he left office โ ramped up as his re-election campaign got off the ground in 2023. Worries about his ability to serve peaked after his disastrous debate performance against Trump in June 2024.
Following the debate, Democrats called on Biden to step down and pass the baton to a younger candidate. Less than a month later, Biden bowed out of the race and endorsed Harris.
Harris would go on to lose the presidency to Trump, earning just 226 electoral votes to his 312.
โPublicly, Democrats scoffed at Republican claims that Biden wasnโt up to the job,โ Parnes and Allen wrote. โBut privately, some of them worried all along that they were putting too much stock in an old man who, at best, had long since lost his fastball.โ
