Age limits for elected officials: Buttigieg weighs in

Is the US heading for a gerontocracy?

If former president Donald Trump secures the GOP nomination for president, the 2024 presidential race will have the two oldest candidates in US history.

Senator Dianne Feinstein’s recent absence from the Senate has renewed conversations about whether there should be age limits for elected officials. The average age of Congress is older than it’s ever been; the median senator is 65 years old, a record high.

On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer asked US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttegieg, the youngest current cabinet member, if there should be age restrictions for government officials.

Buttegieg disagreed that age alone should be a factor in determining someone’s eligibility to run for office and pointed to President Joe Biden’s accomplishments as an example of why political experience is an asset for government leaders.

“I think the measure of any administration is what it delivers,” Buttegieg told Bremmer. “This administration was scoffed at for suggesting that we could have anything major done on a bipartisan basis, only to get the bipartisan infrastructure law done.”

Watch the full episode of GZERO world: The road to repair: Pete Buttigieg & crumbling US infrastructure