Democrats say Biden, 81, must show 'vigor' AND address the southern border to have a successful State of the Union as concerns about his age mount and Republicans say the whole room will be 'on pins and needles'

During President Biden's State of the Union address onlookers will be keenly aware of any signs of cognitive decline after a bombshell special counsel report described him as 'elderly' and 'forgetful.' 

But with age comes 'wisdom and experience,' now says Minnesota Democrat Rep. Dean Phillips, who ended a primary challenge against Biden on Wednesday that he had launched in large part due to concerns about his age. 

'His age is his age,' Phillips told DailyMail.com on Thursday. 'No he's not the same young vigorous man he used to be, none of us are. And neither is Donald Trump.'

'Is it a disconnect right now? Yeah. And I've learned some ways to I think overcome that and I'll share those with him.' 

Phillips urged Biden to 'show vigor' in his third yearly address to a joint session of Congress. 

'His age is his age,' Phillips told DailyMail.com on Thursday. 'No he's not the same young vigorous man he used to be, none of us are. And neither is Donald Trump'

'Showing the capacity to hear Americans and what's really a concern to them, articulating a little bit of a vision for the future. They want to be heard and they want to know what the plan is. And I think doing that, with a little bit of vigor, is gonna go a long, long way.' 

Newly minted Rep. Tom Suozzi urged Biden to touch on the southern border, an area where he has struggled with Americans in polling, in the evening address. 

'I'd love for him to talk about the border and about pushing a bipartisan compromise,' Suozzi told DailyMail.com.

The New York Democrat recently won his seat in a special election to replace Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., beating out his Republican opponent with a playbook that focused heavily on immigration and border issues. 

'His age is his age. It's an objective fact. He can't say, "I'm not my age."' 

'It's all based on his performance. And I'm confident he's gonna do a good job,' Suozzi went on. 

'I'd love for him to talk about the border and about pushing a bipartisan compromise,' Rep. Tom Suozzi, R-N.Y., told DailyMail.com

Biden will give his third address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday 

Republicans are not so confident. 

GOP Whip Tom Emmer said viewers will realize tonight that Biden is 'way too old, baby.' 

'You hit a certain point in life where it starts to go the other way and it starts to regress and unfortunately that is what most people have seen,' he told DailyMail.com.  

'I think the whole room will be on pins and needles, just watching how he handles it,' said Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis.

Rep. John James, R-Mich., agreed Biden should face the border security issue head-on. 

'I don't think the age is as much of an issue as his incompetence,' he told DailyMail.com. 

'People can look at folks like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, two completely opposite sides of the spectrum and recognize that there's something wrong with Joe Biden,' James went on. 

'The best way that he can address his age is frankly, address the issues that Americans are feeling. Be that unifier that he promised us he would be - talk about immigration and then actually use the power of the pen, the same power that he used to repeal the Trump-era immigration policy, border security policy, that work put that back in place.'

James urged Biden to use a provision used by President Barack Obama and Bill Clinton - Section 212 of the Immigration and Naturalization Act - which gives the president broad authority to implement immigration restrictions by proclamation. 

'If he wanted to campaign on the Obama-Biden name last time, why doesn't he do the exact same thing that even Democrats have known to keep Americans safe to secure our border?'

Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, who has an advanced degree in Applied Cognition and Neuroscience, told DailyMail.com: 'If you watch him closely, where his sentences are incomplete, where there are distractions that normally an individual that's having an engaging conversation can adjust with a purposeful pause, an individual as they age gets, and lost in the moment and can't really regain the direction that they were headed.'

'I don't care if you're 80 or 90 years old. I know some 98-year old-women that are just, I mean, they're on point just as sharp. I pray - this is no joke - I pray that he does not go cognitively deaf on TV, in front of I do not want to see that.'

Biden allies have even admitted the president is old. 

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 76, admitted President Joe Biden is 'old' Tuesday, adding Americans need to 'accept the reality' of his age and vote for him to save democracy from Donald Trump.

'Somebody the other day said to me … 'Well, but, you know, Joe Biden's old.' I said, 'You know what, Joe Biden is old. Let's go ahead and accept the reality. Joe Biden is old,' Clinton, 76, said.

One day later, Clinton said those who live into their eighties are 'lucky' and that Biden, 81, and Donald Trump, 77, are 'effectively the same age.'

'When you're lucky to live into your seventies or eighties, the difference of a few years doesn't matter all that much,' Clinton posted on Instagram.

Questions about the president's age came into the national spotlight following a January Department of Justice report by Special Counsel Robert Hur.

Hur claimed that during the investigation into Biden's mishandling of classified documents, it was clear the president has a 'poor memory' and 'diminished faculties.'

Biden was described as 'a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man' who couldn't remember when he served as vice president or even the date his own son Beau died.

The president immediately pushed back on the damning claims buy Hur, though, saying his 'memory is fine.'

Following Hur's report a number of lawmakers suggested Biden's cabinet invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.

The 25th Amendment, which outlines presidential succession, gives the vice president and Cabinet power to remove the commander in chief from office via a majority vote in the event it's determined he or she is no longer fit for office.

Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland in February stating that the 'alarming' findings in the report signal that Biden should be 'charged' unless he's not 'mentally competent to stand trial.'

Garland should 'begin proceedings to remove the President pursuant to the 25th Amendment of the United States Constitution,' Tenney said in the letter obtained by

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., also called for Biden to be removed with the amendment.

Recent polling also finds voters are concerned with Biden's age.

Roughly 6 in 10 say they're not very or not at all confident in President Joe Biden's mental capability to serve effectively as president, according to a new survey released this week by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

By the same token, nearly 6 in 10 also say they lack confidence in the mental capability of former President Donald Trump, the 77-year-old Republican front-runner.