US President Joe Biden Trips And Falls On Stage, Said ‘Sandbagged’

Colorado: President Joe Biden quipped that he got a “sandbag” after he slipped and fell on Thursday? But was it deserted? On stage at the US Air Force Academy graduation. Biden was greeting graduates with salutes and handshakes in front of the stage in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and began jogging back to his seat when he collapsed. He was assisted by an Air Force officer as well as two members of his US Secret Service detail.

Onlookers on stage, including some members of the official delegation, looked on in concern before Biden, who at age 80 is the oldest president in US history, returned to his seat to watch the ceremony end. “I was covered in sand,” the president told reporters with a smile when he returned to the White House on Thursday evening before pretending to walk through the residence. Two small black sandbags were on stage to support the teleprompter used by Biden and other speakers at the graduation.

White House communications director Ben LaBolt tweeted after the incident, “He is fine.” “He was a sandbag on stage while shaking hands.” Biden has come under fire from questions about his age and his fitness to serve, and his missteps have become fodder for political rivals as he campaigns for a second term in 2024. He has tripped over stairs and onto Air Force One before and he once tripped over bike pedals while stopping to talk to reporters near his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Biden’s personal physician said in February after the president’s most recent physical examination that Biden was “a healthy, vigorous 80-year-old male who is fit to successfully perform the duties of the presidency.” Dr. Kevin O’Connor also documented the president’s stiff gait, which O’Connor said was the result of spinal arthritis, a previously broken leg, and neuropathy in Biden’s feet.

Biden is far from the first national political figure to publicly stumble. In 1975, President Gerald Ford collapsed while walking from Air Force One. GOP Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, then the GOP presidential candidate, fell off the stage at a campaign rally in 1996. A podium at a 2012 event. “I got so excited, I missed a step,” he told the crowd.

President Donald Trump’s 2020 West Point debut walk has also raised concerns about his health. Trump, 76, was campaigning in Iowa when he heard about Biden’s stumble and pointed to his own episode. “He really fell. I hope he wasn’t hurt,” Trump told an audience member about what happened to Biden. He doesn’t want to, even if you have to walk down the ramp on your toes.”

The audience laughed as Trump spoke of slowly making his way into what he said was a slippery ramp into the US Military Academy graduation. “If he fell, that’s too bad,” said the former president. “We have to get this thing back on track. It’s a bad place to fall when you’re building, I think it was the Air Force Academy, right? It’s not inspiring.”

Meanwhile, GOP presidential candidate and Florida governor Ron DeSantis used the opportunity to take a political shot at Biden at a campaign event in New Hampshire. “We hope and wish Joe Biden a speedy recovery from any injuries,” he said, “but we also wish that the United States recovers from the injuries caused by Joe Biden and his policies.” Recover fast.