Even Barack Obama's staffers are worried about 'mumbly' and 'frail' Joe Biden's age: Top aides who served under the Democrat say Joe, 81, 'shuffles more'

Staff alumni from former President Barack Obama's administration are expressing growing concerns about President Joe Biden's political struggles surrounding his age.

Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau emphasized that voters already viewed Biden as old, and criticized attempts by the Biden team to dismiss the issue. 

Favreau said he personally believed that Biden was mentally sharp, but that on-camera he frequently appeared 'mumbly.' 

'If you watch Joe Biden speak, oftentimes he sounds frail and he sounds more frail than he used to, even in 2019 and 2020,' Favreau said on the Pod Save America podcast. 'The voice sounds frail and he shuffles more because of the arthritis in his back.'

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with the Director of Speechwriting Jon Favreau

Favreau pointed to polls showing as high as 80 percent of Americans expressing concerns about Biden's age, and said it was not just a media driven side-show narrative.

'In the last NBC poll, more people were concerned about Biden's age than Trump's f****g 91 felony counts,' he said.

He argued that Biden needed to get out on camera more to assuage voter's concerns about his age.  

'When world events seem like they are overtaking him and he's not out there enough forcefully, that's what's getting people concerned,' he said. 

Former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett agreed, arguing that the Biden team needed to get the president out in public to demonstrate his mental and physical abilities even if they were worried about the possibility of more mistakes. 

'I'm sure that going out there more means more missteps ... more gaffes that start circulating but if you don't view Biden being out there more as a net-positive then the argument he shouldn't be running is right,' he said.

Former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett

Favreau said Biden needed to start acknowledging concerns about his age, noting that voters could see for themselves the visible decline.

'I think he has to acknowledge people's concerns, stop being defensive,' he said, pointing to the president's angry reaction to reporters asking him about his age. 'The yelling at the media ... I don't think it's effective.'

Lovett agreed.

'You can't be angrily defending yourself, because even if you're making a good argument about why you're up for the job, you're also making an argument that you've been somehow overtaken by events,' he said.

Former Obama senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer also expressed his concerns about the issue of Biden's age. 

'It is a very real issue ... if Biden can't assuage particularly among his voters from 2020, then I don't think he can win the election, so it some ways its the crux for his campaign,' he said in an interview.

US President Barack Obama and Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer 

Pfeiffer said it was the issue of Biden's age should be the 'first strategic priority' for the president's campaign that spread into every other issue on the campaign. 

'There's a segment of voters who have decided, as of right now, I think their minds can be changed, who have decided that Joe Biden is too old for the job and can't do it, so they're not going to listen to anything he says,' he said. 

Former Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod continues to aggravate Team Biden by offering frequent strategic advice on podcasts and as a commentator on CNN.

On CNN, he urged Biden and his team to lean into the president's personality, quoting a famous 1979 Biden moment when he confronted the Soviet Union by telling them 'don't s*** a s***ter.'

He alluded to recent reports of anonymous White House sources talking about Biden's angry behavior behind the scenes.

Former Obama campaign advisor David Axelrod

He suggested Biden should embrace his temper and confront Trump directly with 'short phrases with Bidenesqe language' in ways that would go viral.

'I would encourage Biden to be Biden,' he said, adding that reacting in real-time would be a much stronger messaging strategy.

Earlier in February, Axelrod said it was 'mind boggling' that the Biden team would skip the traditional interview with the president for the Super Bowl on CBS and criticized them for effectively hiding the president.

'Every time he makes a mistake everybody goes nuts,' he said during a podcast.

Axlerod appeared baffled by the Biden team's media strategy musing that 'maybe they just don't have confidence' to let the president participate in more interviews.

'I think they're are worried about something bad is going to happen,' he said.