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

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Former President Joe Biden regularly used makeup to hide his age, and Kamala Harris’s team had a strategy in case he succeeded in office, according to a new book written by two political journalists.

The revelations come from an excerpt from the upcoming book Fight: Within the wildest struggle around the White Housewritten by The hill ‘S Amie Parnes and NBC News’ Jonathan Allen.

Biden regularly met with a makeup artist while traveling and before Zoom calls with assistants to cover signs of aging, according to the extracts reviewed by The hill. Biden made these appointments throughout, but sometimes canceled the information sessions intended to follow.

Harris’s assistants also had contingency plans in place in the event that Biden died in office, Parnes and Allen wrote. This included a spreadsheet of Republican judges who did not appoint Donald Trump. In this way, if Harris had to be sworn at short notice, it could be done by a judge who was not in Trump’s camp, but who would still consider Republicans credible.

Harris was not aware of this spreadsheet, according to the excerpts provided by The hill. The assistant who put it together in January 2023 and instructed his colleagues to contact him immediately as Biden succeeded for preparing a strategy.

Joe Biden used makeup to hide his age while in office, unveiled a new book, while Kamala Harris's assistant had a strategy ready if the then president died — Joe Biden used makeup to hide his age while in office, unveiled a new book, while Kamala Harris’s assistant had a strategy ready if the then president died (Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

“It shows what we had to do to prepare with the unique circumstances we had, who was an eighty-year-old president running,” said one democratic official, according to Parnes and Allen, according to the Hill.

The independent Contacted Biden and Harris’s offices for comment.

Concerns about Biden’s age-he was 82 when he left office when his re-election campaign came from the ground in 2023. Worry about his ability to serve a highlight after his disastrous debate performance against Trump in June 2024.

Harris replaced Biden as the democratic candidate after concerns about his age at the foreground (AFP via Getty Images)

After the debate, Democrats called on Biden to retire and convey the stick to a younger candidate. Less than a month later, Biden bent out of the race and endorsed Harris.

Harris would lose the presidency to Trump and earn only 226 election votes for his 312.

“In public, Democrats mock the Republican allegations that Biden does not have the work going on,” Parnes and Allen wrote. “But private, some of them have always worried that they put too much stock in an old man who lost his fast ball at best.”

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