President Biden continues to project strength ahead of the 2024 election — by tumbling on stage at the US Air Force Academy Graduation.
The eighty-year-old commander-in-chief fell today while handing out diplomas to graduating cadets in Colorado. Rest assured, he was quickly helped up and escorted off stage by three Air Force officials.
The White House has blamed the fall on a sandbag placed by the podium. “He’s fine. There was a sandbag on stage while he was shaking hands,” White House communications director Ben LaBolt tweeted after the incident. Cockburn isn’t sure how the sandbag got there but could have sworn he heard the familiar cackle of one power-hungry vice president while rewatching the video.
Of course, Biden is no stranger to stumbling. Just two weeks ago, he had a good trip visiting the Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima, Japan. Before that was his most recent fall up those pesky Air Force One stairs. And who can forget his sideways flop of an unmoving bicycle last summer in Delaware. So far Biden has remained unhurt through each and every tumble. Even detractors of the president must admit he’s one tough geezer!
Naturally, the president’s allies were quick to wave away the fall as a cause for concern. “I know I personally have never, ever tripped over anything a day in my life, not once,” former White House comms director Kate Bedingfield tweeted. “Mountain goats, these folks!”
Cockburn can find no record of Biden’s primary opponents Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nor any of the seven Republican candidates, falling over in the last week or so. He will update this piece if he locates any.
Cockburn hopes that Biden’s strength can hold out in time for the 2024 election. Another tumble is inevitable, but surely Biden doesn’t want a repeat of his basement campaign.