An 81-year-old congresswoman found in a Texas care home with dementia has sparked calls for a “new generation” of American politicians.
Kay Granger, a Republican representative, was revealed earlier this week to be living in a care home in Fort Worth, explaining her months of absence from votes in Washington.
Her son, Brandon Granger, told a local newspaper in Texas his mother had been “having some dementia-related issues”.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Ms Granger said she had been “navigating some unforeseen health challenges” that had made travelling to vote in Congress “both difficult and unpredictable”. She said her staff had continued to work in her absence.
The news has prompted fresh demands for a younger generation of politicians, following a presidential campaign cycle dominated by speculation about the age and health of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Mr Trump, 78, will become the oldest president to take office next month, overtaking the record set by Mr Biden in 2020.
Politics in the White House and on Capitol Hill has been dominated by octogenarian politicians in recent years.
In February, the Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, 82, announced he would stand down from his leadership role after health issues that saw him freeze in front of television cameras, apparently unable to continue speaking.
Ro Khanna, a 48-year-old California Democrat, said the latest revelations about Ms Granger’s health were part of a long-running issue with Washington’s “sclerotic gerontocracy”.
“Kay Granger’s long absence reveals the problem with a Congress that rewards seniority and relationships more than merit and ideas,” he said.
“We have a sclerotic gerontocracy. We need term limits. We need to get big money out of politics so a new generation of Americans can run and serve.”
Tony Gonzales, a fellow Texas Republican, said he did not know his colleague had been moved to an assisted living facility.
“I think there’s no doubt a lot of us knew that she was gaining in age, like a lot of members do,” he told CBS.
“And, sadly, some of these members wait until it’s too long – things have gone too far.”
Following his election last month, Mr Trump said he would make all official assessments of his health public, in line with White House precedent.
None of his previous assessments, or those of Mr Biden, have suggested they are suffering with mental slowness.
However, Mr Biden’s age was a major factor in his decision to stand down from the presidential race earlier this year, after a disastrous debate performance against Mr Trump, in which he appeared to freeze and forget his talking points – issues that he repeated on the campaign trail.
Kari Lake, a former GOP senatorial candidate who Mr Trump has appointed to lead the state-funded Voice of America broadcaster, suggested Ms Granger had avoided telling her constituents about her health because of “entrenched forces” in Washington.
“Washington DC shouldn’t be a retirement home, but the entrenched forces there are so desperate to hold on to power that they will reject fresh voices while pulling stunts like this,” she said.