President Joe Biden shocked onlookers during the commencement ceremony at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Thursday afternoon when he fell on the stage.
Video of the incident showed Biden shaking the hand of one of the graduates before turning on stage, taking a step, and falling to the floor.
A number of officials rushed in to help him back up, with took him a moment as the crowd gasped.
BREAKING: Biden takes a big fall on stage just now at the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation pic.twitter.com/GxkMbpyoNo
— Jake Schneider (@jacobkschneider) June 1, 2023
Ben LaBolt, the White House communications director, said on Twitter that Biden was “fine.”
During the ceremony, Biden delivered a speech to the 921 graduates, which lasted approximately 30 minutes. He commended the resilience and capability of the U.S. military while also discussing various foreign policy matters, such as Ukraine, China, and NATO.
Biden now has an infamous history of falling and stumbling, further adding to concerns about his age and mental capacity to remain as commander-in-chief.
He has tripped up the steps of Air Force One on several occasions and fell off his bike near one of his homes in Rehoboth Beach, Del., last summer. He was unsteady on his feet during a visit last week to Hiroshima, Japan, where he nearly faceplanted going down some steps.
The president also had some other “moments” in Japan.
“A confused-looking President Biden had to be gently guided by Japanese leader Fumio Kishida on Friday — before tripping and almost falling down some stairs,” the New York Post reported.
The report added:
The oldest-ever US president looked confused as first lady Jill Biden led him by the hand to meet his Japanese counterpart and his wife for a photo op in Hiroshima ahead of the Group of Seven summit there.
After shaking Kishida’s hand, Biden, 80, turned his attention to the prime minister’s 58-year-old wife, Fumio Kishida — bizarrely bending over with clenched fists, as if in a boxer’s pose, before also shaking her hand.
Biden lost another battle with stairs in Japan today.
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) May 19, 2023
“Footage showed him arriving late for a tour of the Itsukushima Shrine, with the other world leaders already starting their tour as Biden slowly emerged from his limo,” The Post reported. “After walking slowly toward the others, he stared intently at a set of just eight steps — but still tripped, luckily catching his footing before falling.”
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), a former White House physician who served during the administrations of Presidents Obama and Trump, has been the most vocal Republican critic of President Biden’s alleged decline in mental status.
“All we care about in this country with regards to President Biden — 80 years old, who’s got some obvious cognitive issues — is a cognitive assessment of some sort. We want something on the record to prove to us he’s cognitively capable of doing this job, and it’s almost a moot point at this stage because we all know he’s not,” he told Fox News in March.
