Despite the White House's attempts to protect Joe Biden as much as possible from showing the effects of his 81 years on earth, they ultimately can't protect the president from himself — more specifically he own feet.
On Tuesday, as President Biden boarded Air Force One before a flight to the West Coast, he lost his footing — seemingly twice — but managed to stay on his feet this time.
VIGOR: Biden almost trips (twice) as he boards Air Force One — despite using the short stairs to avoid tripping pic.twitter.com/CkoLnwLV2q
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 20, 2024
As seen in the video from the episode, Biden was using the short staircase to board the modified Boeing 747, one of many changes made to the president's routine by aides hoping to prevent more attention from being drawn to the octogenarian's fitness.
In a report from the New York Times earlier this month on the "presidential cocoon" erected by Biden's aides "intended to shield him from verbal slips and physical stumbles," includes not just the switch to the shorter stairs following his trip-and-fall over a sandbag at the U.S. Air Force Academy last summer. "Now, there is a Secret Service agent positioned at the bottom of the stairs when he disembarks," the Times noted. A literal last line of defense between President Biden and what would likely be a serious tumble down the albeit shortened stairs.
Biden's pre-trip trip up the stairs Tuesday follows the last few week's displays that did anything but assuage concerns about Biden's age and fitness to serve another four years. First, Biden kept saying he had conversations with multiple former world leaders who had passed away by the time he claimed to have spoken to them. Then came Special Counsel Robert Hur's report on Biden's mishandling of classified documents that revealed the president couldn't recall when he was vice president or even when his son died. In response to the bombshell report, Biden rushed out to deliver an angry address to America defending his cognitive abilities only to swiftly mix up the presidents of Mexico and Egypt.
It's no surprise that an ABC News/Ipsos poll released this month found 86 percent of Americans believe Biden is "too old" to serve another term — a sentiment voiced by 73 percent of Democrats surveyed as well.