In the Aging Senate, Nobody Wants to Be the One to Nudge Biden Aside

For some time, Senate Democrats knew there was an issue with their aging colleague, but they hesitated to publicly criticize or question someone they considered one of their own.

This person was a legend in the party, after all, someone with a storied legacy who had earned the right to remain and who had made it clear they weren’t going anywhere, ever — at least not voluntarily.

Besides, many senators were not much younger themselves, and nudging aside someone whose age was showing would prompt uncomfortable self-reflection. Even when the issues reached a point where they were too obvious for anyone to ignore, no party leader in Congress — including Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader — wanted to be the first to start a public campaign to push out a friend and ally.

The dilemma Democratic senators are now facing regarding what to do about President Biden’s teetering presidential campaign is a familiar one for members of the aging chamber, who have watched many of their colleagues — including Mr. Biden, who served in the Senate for three decades — hold onto positions of power as they grow older.

They most recently lived through a similarly awkward and painful situation with former Senator Dianne Feinstein of California in the final years of her life.

Her condition was much more clear-cut than Mr. Biden’s; as it advanced, Ms. Feinstein began using a wheelchair and, by all accounts, was clearly in the later stages of dementia, unable to carry out daily tasks on her own. Mr. Biden’s precise health status is not known and he appears able to perform many elements of his job, though his disastrous debate performance called attention to what people around him described as more frequent lapses that raise questions about his mental acuity, his physical strength and whether he is up to the high-stakes task of defeating former President Donald J. Trump.