President Joe Biden briefly lost his balance while boarding Air Force One Tuesday, in just the latest near mishap while boarding the presidential aircraft.
The incident happened shortly after Biden saluted a military aide at the foot of the stairs Tuesday at the start of his trip to California for fundraisers and a public event.
He took about five steps up the stars, then suddenly lost his balance. He avoided tripping, then steadied himself on the hand rail, which he had been using intermittently all the way up.
It happened a day after the president was spotted in new high-end black Hoka sneakers while returning to DC from Delaware on President’s Day.
On Tuesday, Biden, 81, wore black dress shoes with what appeared to be a rubber sole.
As is often the case in recent months, Biden used the smaller stairway that can be dropped from beneath the aircraft, rather than the longer stairway that can pose an issue on windy days, and where Biden has experienced stumbles in the past.
En route to California, DailyMail.com asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about a report that the White House has been pushing back at the New York Times over coverage of the president’s age and fitness.
‘You all ask me pretty regularly about the president’s age,’ Jean-Pierre said. She quoted former New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan, who wrote that ‘Maybe the Times and other major media outlets ought to look in the mirror.’
‘Alas, self-scrutiny and course correction are not among Big Media’s core strengths,’ she said, quoting from her recent substack article.
‘I’ll leave it there,’ Jean-Pierre concluded.
Biden’s incident follows a report that the Secret Service now stations an agent at the bottom of the stairway, following a series of stumbles.
On Tuesday a plain clothes agent could be seen standing at the bottom of the stairway while Biden climbed the stairs.
The White House has been playing defense about the president’s age after special counsel Robert Hur included language in his report explaining the decision not to charge Biden in the classified documents probe. One passage described him as an ‘elderly man’ who sometimes had a ‘hazy’ memory.