White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said it was the “tricky” steps on Air Force One that caused President Joe Biden’s three stumbles while boarding the plane on Friday.
“He’s 100% fine,” Psaki said of Biden during Monday’s press briefing.
“I don’t know if you’ve been up those steps. They’re a little tricky sometimes, but he’s doing great,” the press secretary told reporters.
On Friday, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blamed the wind for Biden’s three stumbles.
“It’s pretty windy outside,” Jean-Pierre told reporters, reported The New York Times. “It’s very windy. I almost fell coming up the steps myself. He is doing 100 percent fine.”
As noted by The Daily Wire, Biden’s repeated stumbling occurred shortly before the president departed Joint Base Andrews for Atlanta.
White House Communications Director Kate Beddingfield similarly said the incident was not a big deal.
“I know folks have seen that President Biden slipped on his way up the stairs to AF1, but I’m happy to report that he is just fine and did not even require any attention from the medical team who travels with him,” Beddingfield posted to Twitter. “Nothing more than a misstep on the stairs.”
During Monday’s presser, however, Psaki refused to say if Biden saw a doctor after the fall. The Daily Wire reported:
Asked whether Biden had to see a doctor because of it, Psaki looked up and said, “Um, I’m not aware of that being required. There’s of course a doctor who travels with the president, any president of the United States. But, um, I’m not aware of it needing, uh, actual extensive medical attention.”
When another reporter pressed Psaki to clarify if the answer to the question was “no,” she said, “Was it no? Well, I’m not trying to be, there’s a doctor who travels with him. He was walking around as you all saw by the end of the day. So I’m trying to be completely transparent. He’s absolutely fine, as he was on Friday, was this weekend. He spent the weekend at Camp David.”
While running for president, Biden, ironically, knocked then-President Donald Trump over a viral video that showed Trump walking down a slippery ramp slowly.
“If you win and you’re sworn in — and you’ve had this question 40 times — but you would be the oldest president in U.S. history. Some people might suggest — the Trump campaign ads have suggested, you’ve lost a step or two. What’s your response to that?” a reporter pressed Biden.
“Look at how he steps and look how I step. Watch how I run up ramps and he stumbles down ramps. Okay, c’mon,” Biden responded. “It’s a legitimate question to ask. Legitimate question to ask of both of us. Thank God my health is good, but I’m a great respecter of fate, I realize that anything can happen to anybody at any age, any time. But I promise you, I would not be running unless I was in very good health. I work out every morning, and I am in relatively good shape. As my mother would say, knock on wood.”
WATCH:
Another angle pic.twitter.com/BQkfn9eRcQ
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 19, 2021