President Biden sometimes struggles to make it up the stairs of Air Force One without incident, with stumbles up the steps being a far more frequent feature of watching him make his way into the plane than those wishing for strong US leadership should be comfortable seeing. In fact, to many online, Biden’s trouble with the steps is a sign of his old age and attendant physical problems, a view quickly made prominent online when Biden struggled up the Air Force One in late February.
The incident occurred on Tuesday, February 20, when Biden was out in California for fundraisers. As he made his way up the Air Force One steps, he twice stumbled, though without tumbling over completely, as has happened in the past. In the video of the incident that emerged, after Biden saluted the military personnel at the bottom of the stairwell, one made shorter for him, he had to catch himself with the handrail as he stumbled on the steps.
Just as predictably as Biden struggling with the stair was the online right’s reaction to the incident, with many conservative commentators and accounts on X commenting on what looked like Biden’s frailty and th situation. Conservative Free Press, for example, said, “Joe Biden almost trips twice on the short steps. The man is falling apart in real time.”
Responding to CFP’s tweet, one commenter said, “The man was falling apart when he pretended to run for president from his basement in 2020, and the world has been in one utter hallucination that he’s ‘running’ anything for four years now.” Another added, “It’s like he is wearing flip flop’s when he is going up the stairs.😂”
Similarly, Fox News contributor Leo Terrell joked, “oe is afraid of stairs!!” Responding to him, one commenter joked, “We’ve finally reached that time that we have a president who will most likely need a chair lift added to AF1, which aligns with the depends he is wearing!” Another sarcastically said, “The amount of vigor and vitality this president displays is inspiring”
In much the same vein, Alec Sears, a conservative digital strategist, jumped in and added some sarcasm, saying, “Lots of vigor on display here.” Another poster, commenting on Biden’s age and physical issues more generally, said, “My mom is 6 months older than Joe Biden, beat breast cancer, doesn’t take a single drug, still walks the golf course 3x a week, rides a bike without falling, can walk up stairs without falling and has not fallen over sand bags. Unlike Biden, she has all her faculties and a fiery wit. Anyone who says Biden is fit for anything other than ice cream and shuffleboard should probably join him at the memory care center.”
Watch Biden struggle up the stairs here:
The White House, for its part, maintains that Biden is in good physical health. In a report on the president’s health, the White House doctor said, “The President feels well and this year’s physical identified no new concerns. He continues to be fit for duty and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations.”
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