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A senior representative of the Republican Party of Texas disappeared from Congress for five months. Kay Granger, 81, stepped down as chair of the House Appropriations Committee last spring and announced last year that she would not seek reelection. During the month of July, she completely disappeared from Congress and has since missed months of votes.
Last week, The Dallas Express (whose current CEO launched a primary challenge against Granger in 2020) reported that Granger was residing in an assisted living facility. Soon his son confirmed that she has lived there for at least several months; yesterday he would have said that the representative’s decline was “very rapid” and that she had moved into the facility before she began showing signs of dementia. In a statement has AxiosGranger said: “Since early September, my health problems have progressed, making frequent travel to Washington both difficult and unpredictable. » Yesterday, his staff posted a photo of the representative; it is unclear how many of his colleagues knew of his condition.
Once again, the moral questions of America’s political gerontocracy are revealed. This is a particularly sensitive topic because many of us have loved ones – parents, grandparents, siblings – who are experiencing cognitive decline. They deserve our consideration, our compassion and our honesty. This also applies to members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, and presidents. But the stakes are much higher, and in these cases, compassion sometimes means being honest about when it’s time to move on.
As Granger’s story reminds us, for a politician to remain in his role even if he suffers from cognitive decline is detrimental to those who rely on him. Texas voters and local officials appeared stunned to learn of their representative’s disappearance. Rolando García, member of the state Republican executive committee said it was a “sad and humiliating way” for Granger to end her career. “Sad that no one cared enough to ‘take away the keys’ before she reached this moment.” he wrote about. Did Granger’s staff and family cover for her? Did they mislead the public? Did they lie to Granger herself? Is it difficult to tell influential political figures that it is time to resign? In 2024, these are familiar questions. Elderly members of Congress and Supreme Court justices have resisted calls to retire; Senator Dianne Feinstein and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg both died in office. For much of this year, our politics has been dominated by octogenarians, including Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Grassley (who, at 91, is actually a nonagenarian). But Joe Biden’s decision to run for office at the age of 80 provides the strongest argument against gerontocracy.
Despite growing signs of Biden’s decline, the White House remained firmly in denial — at least until June’s disastrous presidential debate. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported in detail how Biden’s staff formed a protective phalanx around the frail president, tightly controlling access, scripting interactions with his cabinet, and scheduling meetings around his “bad” moments. (The White House denied that the president’s schedule “was changed because of his age.”) “Interactions with senior Democratic lawmakers and some Cabinet members, including powerful secretaries such as Lloyd Austin of Defense and Treasury’s Janet Yellen, were infrequent or have become less frequent. ,” THE Newspaper reported. “Some legislative leaders have struggled to get the president’s attention at key moments, including before the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.” Meanwhile, the White House has pushed back against evidence that Biden — the oldest man to ever serve as president — may not be able to serve effectively for another four years.
American politicians have an age problem, and this problem seems particularly acute among congressional Democrats. The predominance of older politicians can arguably make the elected class less relevant in the eyes of younger voters and make it more difficult for new voices to emerge in politics. But ultimately, it’s a question of honesty: Didn’t the American people have a right to know that Biden was in trouble? Didn’t Texans deserve to know about Granger? And if one of them was lied to by those who supported them, didn’t they deserve the truth too?
Eventually, Biden bowed out – and one consequence is that the next president of the United States will, like Biden, be 82 years old at the end of his term.
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- President Biden commutes the sentences of almost all prisoners currently on federal death row. Thirty-seven prisoners, all convicted of murder, will serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.
- Jordanian Foreign Minister and Qatari Minister of State arrived in Damascus to meet the new Syrian leaders.
- At a rally yesterday, Donald Trump said that his administration could attempt to regain control of the Panama Canal. This remark prompted a response from Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, who declared that “every square meter of the Panama Canal belongs to Panama.”
Dispatches
- Work in progress: California Raised the Minimum Wage for Fast Food Workers and Employment Continued to Rise, Rogé Karma writing. So why was the law declared a failure?
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Evening reading
Dear Therapist: How can I deal with my hostile sister?
By Lori Gottlieb
This holiday season I faced some major challenges with my older sister and my boyfriend. The trouble began last winter, when my boyfriend wanted to buy an investment property in the state where I’m from and where my sister currently resides. My sister became very angry with me and my boyfriend for investing in a place where she lives. We received angry phone calls and derogatory text messages from him. We were shocked by his response. I have yet to make up with my sister because she never apologized, but I have been cordial to her along with the rest of our family.
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Isabel Fattal contributed to this newsletter.
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