Footage from this past weekend captures President Biden hitting his head on the presidential Marine One helicopter on Sunday night when returning to the White House. The video is the latest among numerous incidents in which Biden has struggled when exiting and entering aircraft, further fueling the discussion around the president’s mental and physical health.
The clip, which has picked up significant traction on X, shows the president wearing a ball cap while slowly approaching the stairs with his head facing down, seemingly unaware of the height of the exit door. After knocking his head, Biden slowly descends down the stairs in a rigid manner, waiting for First Lady Jill Biden at the bottom.
Notably, this is not President Biden’s first run-in with Marine One. The American Tribune reported on an incident that occurred last year where nearly the same thing happened to Biden over a year ago when exiting the aircraft in front of the press. To make matters worse, just the day before, he had infamously tripped while onstage at the Air Force Academy’s commencement ceremony. The Tribune reported:
In any case, on the afternoon of that day, Biden had headed back from the graduation ceremony and landed on the White House grounds in Marine One, the presidential helicopter. That was when, stepping out of the helicopter, he hit his forehead on the helicopter. He then did his usually stiff gait of a walk across the White House lawn while rubbing his head.
Since the presidential debate that took place late last month, the Biden campaign has faced a disastrous predicament where it is trying to reinstill confidence in the American public and the Democratic Party, where some have called for Biden to step aside for a more viable candidate. During the debate against former President Donald Trump, Biden demonstrated signs of elderly age, stumbling over his words, freezing mid-sentence, and other concerning behavior.
Some have even speculated that he may even suffer from a neurodegenerative condition amid his stiff, rigid gait and apparent cognitive challenges. Fueling this opinion, recent reports indicate that a Parkinson’s expert has visited the White House eight times. White House physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, released a statement on Biden’s health that starkly contrasts the concerns of the public.
Dr. O’Connor stated, “The results of this year’s exam were detailed in my February 28th letter: ‘An extremely detailed neurologic exam was again reassuring in that there were no findings which would be consistent with any cerebellar or other central neurological disorder, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s or ascending lateral sclerosis, nor are there any signs of cervical myelopathy. This exam did again support a finding of peripheral neuropathy in both feet. No motor weakness was detected. He exhibits no tremor, either at rest or with activity. Watch the most recent incident of Biden hitting his head below:
Contradicting the widespread concern about Biden’s rigid gait, Dr. O’Connor claimed Biden shows “excellent” motor skills. The physician added, “He demonstrates excellent fine motor dexterity. But a subtle difference in heat/cold sensation could be elicited as it was last year. This heat/cold sensation deficit was detected a couple of inches higher on his ankle/calf this year, which is not unexpected. There may, in fact, be day to day subjective variation of these findings, as during last year’s exam, this area of sensation deficit was actually found to be smaller than the year before.’”