Earlier this week, the Biden administration hosted a celebration on the White House lawn to commemorate the upcoming Juneteenth celebration. However, based on footage of the event, many have raised questions about Biden’s behavior.
Footage of the Juneteenth concert has circulated across social media, showing the crowd dancing and cheering on a performance by gospel singer Kirk Franklin. Footage shows Vice President Kamala Harris dancing with her husband, Douglas Emhoff, as President Biden stands beside George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd.
While the rest of the crowd was lively, Biden remained motionless in an awkward stance, his gaze fixed in a smile, presumably looking at the performers on stage. RNC Research, a popular account on X maintained by the Republican National Committee, shared the clip with the caption, “Why isn’t Biden moving?.”
The American Tribune also reported on Biden’s remarks during the Juneteenth event, where he appeared to struggle through his speech, badly slurring words at some moments. A short clip of the speech, in which some of Biden’s words were indecipherable, went viral on social media.
The president began his speech, “The White House has never seen him like this before. That was outstanding. Thanks to all the performers here tonight to help us feel the power of black culture that is American culture, for the fitting tribute to Juneteenth.”
Biden further bragged about designating Juneteenth as a federal holiday. “I was proud to have made Juneteenth the Federal holiday. I’m grateful to the members of Congress are here today who helped make it possible. I’m not going to start to name them, because I’ll miss somebody. But it wasn’t just a symbolic gesture with a statement of fact. It was about a statement of faith,” he said.
Many have pointed to President Biden’s behavior at the event as yet another sign of his advanced age, as he is the oldest sitting president in U.S. history at 81 years old. If Biden were to be reelected later this year, he would be 86 by the time he would leave office in 2029. Watch Biden at the Juneteenth celebration below:
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According to recent polling data from ABC News and Ipsos, the “overwhelming majority” of Americans, 86%, believe Joe Biden is too old to serve another term as President of the United States. Given that Biden has demonstrated innumerable gaffes and public slip-ups throughout his presidency, many are concerned about him representing the nation on the international stage.
Moreover, official reports from Special Counsel Robert Hur expressed concerns about Biden’s age, validating the concerns of many voters. According to Hur, he did not recommend that criminal charges be brought against Biden, partly citing his elderly age and complications with memory.
Hur said, “We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory . . . It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him—by then a former president well into his eighties of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.