Supporters of Joe Biden were fateful when they claimed he did not put a foot wrong during his first two months in office.
The U.S. president managed to fall not once, not twice, but three times on Friday en route to the Air Force One presidential plane.
A White House spokesman blamed windy weather.
The triple hurdle comes when Biden, at 78 the oldest person ever elected to the U.S. presidency, leaves for Atlanta from Andrews in Maryland at Joint Base.
About halfway up the red carpet stairs, Biden could be seen losing his feet before tripping three times and eventually landing on his left knee while still holding the railing with his right hand.
The president got up again, gave up his left knee and climbed the rest of the stairs before turning and greeting American marines who had flown by helicopter to the airport.
Officials insisted no damage had been done. Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House’s deputy press secretary, told reporters on Air Force One: ‘It’s very windy. I almost noticed myself with the stairs. He does 100% fine. ”
Asked if the president is being monitored by a doctor, Jean-Pierre simply said: ‘I just know – I just know he’s fine. He’s doing well. ”
The incident is reminiscent of the concern in November last year when Biden broke his foot after slipping while playing with his pet, a German shepherd named Major.
Conservatives also used his infamous oral gaffs – he accidentally referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “President Harris” as evidence of age-related decline.
Donald Trump Jr., the son of the former president, sarcastically tweeted on the fall of Biden: “Do not notice that the President of the United States is so fragile that he has been repeatedly knocked over by a gust of wind. There’s nothing to see here, people! ‘
Trump Jr. too tweeted a spoof video in which his father hits a golf ball that flies through the air and hits Biden on the head and overturns him. “It was not the wind people,” he added.
But Biden is hardly alone in suffering the dangers when watching TV cameras every time. Mike Pence, the former vice president, stumbled when he climbed the stairs to Air Force Two in June last year.
That same month, Donald Trump walked down a slope at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point and later explained that he knew a fall would be exploited by watching media.
Jeffrey Wright, an actor and activist, tweeted: “It does not matter to me whether Joe Biden rides a stairway with a staircase of stone after a communion, as long as he keeps Covid bouncing with this vaccination.”