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Let's Talk About That Weird Viral Video of Obama Escorting a 'Frozen' Biden Off Stage

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  June 18, 2024 10:05 AM

It's not just one recent video people have been picking apart.  It's three.  First there was the Juneteenth musical performance clip, in which President Biden -- surrounded by dancing, clapping, singing people -- stood stiff as a board, grinning vaguely at the spectacle.  He looked, in the eyes of many, off.  Amused, if a bit bewildered.  At another point during the same event, he was tepidly clapping far out of rhythm with everyone else.  Taken in isolation, this could have been a insignificant non-event.  Taken alongside public opinion polling showing large bipartisan majorities already convinced the president is too old for the job, as he asks voters for another four years, they're not nothing:


Then there was the G7 moment or incident in Italy, in which Biden seemed to wander away from other world leaders during an event.  Biden was giving a thumbs-up to other parachuters, as other angles show, but his extended separation clearly concerned other heads of state enough for them to spring into action to try to smoothly guide him back into the fold:


As I said on my radio show, in describing this scene, it's a political Rorschach test.  Biden defenders insist it's a giant smear job, and that Biden was just greeting other people who were out of frame.  Biden critics see an elderly, disoriented man shuffling away, then staring off into the distance until other dignitaries intervened -- after which Biden very slowly put on sunglasses, then stood frozen in place: 


To me, what was concerning about the clip was not anything Biden did or didn't do, which is at least debatable and arguable.  It's how France's leader very clearly believed something was amiss and made eye contact with the Italian leader, giving her a 'we should do something here' nod, at which point she glided over and did her best to gracefully nudge the President of the United States back to his proper mark.  It's how the people around him, interacting with him in-person, reacted that told the relevant story.  Which brings us to this:


This was taken at the tail end of a glitzy fundraiser in Los Angeles.  Democratic strategist and part-time comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who lost to Ted Cruz in basketball, had just conducted a 40-minute conversation with Biden and former President Barack Obama.  As the crowd cheers and the band plays, the two presidents bask in the adulation for awhile, waving to their applauding admirers.  Then Biden just...stands there for enough time that Obama, a smooth operator who understands stage presence, obviously felt it was necessary to double back and take Biden's arm.  This was not a light pat or a gentle gesture, mind you.  Obama fully takes hold of the president's forearm, then Biden obediently starts slowly moving in Obama's direction and the two men walk off stage, with Obama's arm around Biden's shoulder.  Once again, this could be chalked up as much ado about nothing, but it must also be judged in the context of the video snippets above.  Also, once again, what is more revealing is the behavior of the people around Biden, as opposed to whatever Biden is or is not doing himself.  Something made Barack Obama, in front of thousands of cameras, firmly grab Biden's arm and lead him away.  

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Obama isn't a fool.  He knows what the narratives are, and how Biden is perceived.  He knows about the Wall Street Journal story and the corresponding polling.  So he must have been aware how appearing to ostentatiously lead Biden away would look to many people, and he did it anyway.  The most obvious conclusion is that he felt that letting Biden remain out there, staring (or doing whatever he was doing) would have been worse.  He was trying to help, in all likelihood.  But if Biden didn't actually need any help, Obama's choice was needlessly and gratuitously harmful to Biden, further buttressing a storyline about the incumbent's advanced age and frailty.  Some are attributing Machiavellian motives to the 44th president, speculating that he's helping set up a back-up ejection plan like this one:

Now, a last-ditch effort by Biden's backers to silence his critics inside the party may prove to be his ultimate undoing. According to Democratic bigwig, Obama campaign guru David Axelrod, the Biden team scheduled one of the earliest presidential debates in history (June 27 on CNN) to prove to naysayers that Joe's not going anywhere.  But the gambit carries tremendous risk. While an efficient debate performance by Biden could help rally Democrats behind him - a significant misstep would only stoke more replacement chatter. Former Clinton advisor and polling expert Mark Penn suggested the CNN debate will be Biden's last chance to reassure voters he's fit for the job...Now DailyMail.com has learned that if Joe stumbles in that first face-off with Trump or if his polling numbers keep falling, it'll take a united front of the liberal grandees to make Joe throw in the towel. 'The only people who could force him out would be Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer,' one Democratic strategist told DailyMail.com. 'It would have to be the four of them collectively.' And the process would be high risk....

As the recognized leader of the Democratic Party, a stubborn Biden could refuse to step down and fight on to Election Day, even as the party grows more exasperated with his performance. Biden is fiercely proud of his first-term accomplishments, which he – dubiously – boasts are more significant than other modern president's triumphs. Though to be fair, Biden was the one who beat Trump in 2020. Additionally, while Biden respects Pelosi, Clinton, and Schumer, his growing resentment of Obama has become painfully clear...[Under the theory], top Democratic leaders would quietly draft the substitute nominee in advance. That person would not be Vice President Kamala Harris, according to sources, who observed that Harris has already had to fend off a push to replace her on the ticket. 'It doesn't just become Kamala. Kamala only becomes the nominee if Biden dies,' one blunt consultant said. Another Democratic political insider believes that Harris has failed so badly as vice president that she has made it nearly impossible for Biden to step aside – because the party would have to contend with progressive blowback over passing over the potential first black woman president. But if not Harris, then who?

I remain highly skeptical of these scenarios, and still believe the stubborn incumbent wants to be re-nominated, and therefore very likely will be. And yes, the 'Kamala problem' is real for the party, too. Paralysis and inertia are likely to prevail.  But it does seem as though Team Biden is in rather dire straits when their chief spokesperson feels forced to lie that un-doctored, unedited videos of her boss are "deep fakes" and "manipulated:" 


They executed this play in 2020 with the laptop, an elaborate con that wouldn't be fully unraveled and exposed for years. This is even more brazen because they are asking people to disbelieve real images they can see with their own eyes. "Deep fakes" are a threat to the truth. So is lying about "deep fakes." Biden's operation sees his performance and has chosen the path of flagrant, shameless misinformation. Will the "misinformation" panickers take them to task, aggressively? Don't hold your breath. These are many of the same people who pushed the Russia hoax, even after it fell apart, and who carried water on the laptop "disinformation" disinformation.  The 'BlueAnon' lies and spin are maximally Orwellian at this point, with many 'news' outlets treating the White House's astonishing "deep fake" lie as a legitimate response.  Gaslighting is everywhere: