Last Thursday in Colorado during a commencement ceremony at the U.S. Air Force Academy, President Joe Biden took a pretty hard fall, tumbling onto his side as he began a walk just moments after handing out the final diploma of the day.
Three people, presumably his Secret Service agents, had to help Biden get back onto his feet as the shocked crowd looked on. He walked back to his seat by himself afterward, seemingly unfazed.
Naturally, when a president falls it is pretty big news, and Biden’s was no exception.
Except, in this case, the mainstream media rushed to run interference for Biden, undoubtedly with the thought in mind that it would raise even more questions among the American public about his age and physical fitness to lead, and at a time when his 2024 reelection campaign is trying to, well, get off the ground.
For instance, Reuters reported in a headline that, “Biden trips and falls during graduation ceremony, recovers quickly.”
In other words, move along, nothing to see here.
NBC News senior reporter Ben Collins, who at this point should rip the costume off once and for all and proudly display the Democrat “D” tattoo he has on his biceps, was irked that Biden falling would take up so much discussion time on the Twitter machine.
“Welp, Joe Biden just fell down. Say goodbye to reading anything important on this site for the next 72 hours,” Collins raged, as though the octogenarian president of the United States taking a hard fall was not “important.”
What we do know was that if it was Donald Trump, we’d have nonstop coverage from news outlets for weeks about why it all mattered.
No, seriously, that is what happened to Trump whenever he so much as held a glass of water with two hands.
“Did anyone else notice Trump drinking a glass of water with both hands again in the Lesley Stahl interview? That is not the usual way one drinks a glass of water…,” New Yorker staff writer Susan Glasser tweeted in October 2020.
And when Trump walked down a ramp slowly during a West Point commencement ceremony in June 2020, the media absolutely lost their minds, with then-CNN editor at large Chris Cillizza penning a piece titled, “Why the Donald Trump-West Point ramp story actually matters.”
“Trump’s Halting Walk Down Ramp Raises New Health Questions,” read The New York Times headline on the story, followed by a sub-headline about, you guessed it, how he was holding a glass of water.
“The president also appeared to have trouble raising a glass of water to his mouth during a speech at West Point a day before he turned 74, the oldest a president has been in his first term.”
Back to Biden: The official story from his handlers in the White House is that he supposedly tripped over a sandbag that was allegedly used to keep his teleprompter from falling or blowing over, but there has been no video or photo evidence that corroborates their version of what happened.
Even if true, it doesn’t cancel the other embarrassing stumbles and falls Biden has had as president while walking straight ahead or up the stairs of Air Force One, and it also raises questions about his situational awareness or lack thereof.
At the very least, it provides the American public with yet one more reminder that the current occupant of the Oval Office is 80 years old, a reminder that comes at an inconvenient time considering just a few months ago he told an interviewer that anyone who had questions about his health should “Watch me” over the next two years of his reelection campaign.
They are, Mr. President. They are.
North Carolina native Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a media analyst and regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection.
