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Biden stumbles multiple times and falls climbing Air Force One stairs — White House blames wind
ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images

Biden stumbles multiple times and falls climbing Air Force One stairs — White House blames wind

Spokesperson says the president 'is doing 100 percent fine' after the incident

President Joe Biden stumbled multiple times and fell while climbing the stairs onto Air Force One on Friday, but the White House insists he "is doing 100 percent fine" after the fall they attributed to the wind.

What are the details?

Biden, 78, began his climb at a brisk pace while using the hand rail before tripping twice and then falling before pulling himself back up and completing his ascent more carefully.

Biden Falls Three Times Getting on Air Force Onewww.youtube.com

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blamed the president's stumbles on the windy day, telling reporters, "It's pretty windy outside. It's very windy. I almost fell coming up the steps myself."

She added that Biden "is doing 100 percent fine" after the incident.

Kate Bedingfield, White House communications director, reiterated in a tweet that Biden "is just fine and did not even require any attention form the medical team who travels with him." She called the stumbles "nothing more than a misstep on the stairs."

Fox News noted that Biden is just "one of many top American leaders to fall while boarding presidential jets," pointing to previous stair-tripping made by former Vice President Mike Pence, former President Barack Obama, and a fall former President Gerald Ford took in 1975.

But Biden has fallen under extra scrutiny over both his physical and mental capacities, considering he is the oldest U.S. president to assume the office.

The Washington Examiner reminded its readers that Biden fractured his foot in December, before reporting:

White House aides have taken great strides during his two months in office to downplay the 78-year-old president's age. They have limited him to brief speeches that have not required him to stand for long periods and released pictures of him playing with his German Shepherds on the White House's South Lawn.

The president's advanced age was raised as a concern repeatedly both during the Democratic primaries and the general election last year.

In September, Biden mocked Trump after the former president and his campaign suggested that the Democrat had "lost his step." Biden told one outlet in his own defense, "Look at how [Trump] steps and look at how I step. Watch how I run up ramps and how he stumbles down ramps, okay?"

Anything else?

After Biden's fall on Friday, a buzz began on social media asking how mainstream media outlets will cover the current president's literal stumbles versus the hysteria when former President Donald Trump took caution while walking down a ramp after delivering the commencement at West Point. Trump explained later that the ramp was slick.

Commentary writer Drew Holden delivered a thread on Twitter showing several examples of media outlets declaring Trump's ramp walk raised "health questions" along with "grifters" who seized on it — with one declaring the ramp walk showed Trump "is physically and mentally impaired."

Dylan Byers, senior reporter for NBC News and MSNBC, even wondered out loud whether media would be consistent in its coverage of the Biden fall, tweeting, "Going to be an interesting test of the media that ran 'Trump grabs handrail' headlines to see how they handle Biden falling down on the stairs. Every news organization is entitled to its own editorial judgment, but if you set the precedent..."

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