There are a lot of ways to tackle this. President Joe Biden is often seen as aloof and spacey, and concerns for his health (and ammo for his opponents) were in full view recently when the president seemingly paused on stage and had to be prodded by former President Barack Obama to exit. Is Biden okay? It’s a question that unfortunately doesn’t have an easy answer.
The June 15 fundraiser where the incident in question happened was packed with stars and raised more than $30 million for the president’s campaign, but it didn’t quell any ongoing rumors about his health. Obama, Biden and late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel spent about half an hour on stage bantering about the election. The “pause” happened as Biden was walking off the stage.
So there’s some stuff going on here. Firstly, former President Donald Trump jumped right on the video, showing a grainier version, and saying, “Is this really who you want to be your president?” However, the video making the rounds was selectively edited, per ABC News.
The Biden campaign, dealing with the fallout from the clip, released footage from a different angle. That shows Biden clapping, pointing, and giving thumbs up before standing there for about seven seconds before Obama grabs his arm and gently leads him offstage. The official explanation is that “the President taking in an applauding crowd for a few seconds.”
Look. There shouldn’t need to be an official explanation. Obviously Biden is very old, but it can be hard to separate fact from fiction when it comes to these kinds of things, and we can’t conclusively say whether the guy is senile or not. Human nature is to pretty much take things at face value without doing the research necessary to see if something is true or not. This is the real evil of social media – that it can spread untruths faster than they can be debunked.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said footage of Biden looking old and aloof are “cheap fakes” done by Republicans, and that they show “everything that we need to know about how desperate, how desperate Republicans are here.”
A Kimmel spokesperson also called the footage “nonsense.” “Attendees in the front were shouting at him, and President Biden was trying to hear them,” he told the AP. “It’s as simple as that.”
The event also featured cameos from some of Hollywood’s elite, including Julia Roberts, George Clooney, and Barbra Streisand. Both Biden and Obama pressed the issue that this election would be uncomfortably close and that it was pertinent they defeat Trump.
Published: Jun 19, 2024 05:45 am