Twitter (Jake Schneider) Screenshots from the Biden falls video.
President Joe Biden falls at the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony on June 1, 2023, and now the video is going viral on Twitter.
“Biden trips and falls during graduation ceremony, recovers quickly,” Reuters reported.
You can see the video later in this article. The word “tripped” trended on Twitter as a result of the fall.
Here’s what you need to know:
The White House Communications Director Blamed a Sandbag for President Joe Biden Falling
Ben LaBolt, White House Communications Director, tweeted, “He’s fine. There was a sandbag on stage while he was shaking hands.” That time, the White House said it was very windy out.
He was responding to Bloomberg reporter Josh Wingrove, who tweeted, “Biden fell after appearing to trip over a sandbag on stage after congratulating the last of the graduating Air Force Academy cadets. He’s uninjured, per the White House.”
According to Reuters, Biden “tripped and fell after handing out the last diploma at a graduation ceremony at the U.S. Air Force Academy.”
Biden, 80, “quickly got up on one knee helped by three people and walked back to his seat unassisted. As Biden was helped up, he pointed behind him, seeming to indicate what he tripped over,” Reuters wrote.
Joe Biden Has Fallen on Video Before, But a White House Doctor Declared Him Fit for Duty Just Months Ago
GettyJoe Biden trips, falls.
It’s not the first time that Biden has fallen on camera. In 2021, Biden was walking up the stairs onto Air Force One when he fell three times in a row before getting up on his own. It’s not clear what caused Biden to stumble.
In February 2023, Biden was declared “fit for duty” by a White House doctor, Reuters reported. The declaration came “after a physical examination that included removing a lesion from his chest and declaring him free of symptoms of long COVID,” Reuters reported.
“The president remains fit for duty, and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations,” White House physician Kevin O’Connor wrote, according to Reuters.
Political opponents pounced as the Biden falls video went viral. “As much trouble as Biden has standing on his feet without falling in front of the cameras, imagine how many times he has fallen down when the cameras aren’t rolling!” tweeted Donald Trump Jr.
The most famous presidential stumble belongs to Gerald Ford. Ford stumbled on his way up airplane steps – in 1975 – and he was mocked for it. “While visiting Austria in 1975, the President’s bum knee gave way and he tumbled down the Air Force One stairs,” Time Magazine reported, noting that, even though Ford blamed a knee problem and had been a football star, that and another tumble cemented the caricature that he was a klutz.
President Donald Trump was once mocked when he walked very slowly down a ramp at West Point. As the New York Post noted, Biden mocked Trump at the time.
“Look at how he steps and look at how I step,” Biden said in September 2020, according to The Post, which said Trump said the ramp was slippery.