The White House responded on Friday to a claim circulating on social media that President Joe Biden wandered off the tarmac after greeting freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Three Americans, including journalists Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, and corporate security executive Paul Whelan landed back on American soil overnight after a prisoner swap with Russia. The freed Americans were greeted by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris when they arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland shortly before midnight on Thursday.
Gershkovich was detained in Russia in March 2023 on espionage charges that both he and the U.S. government deny and sentenced to 16 years in prison last month. Whelan, detained since 2018, was also accused of espionage, and Kurmasheva, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist, was convicted in July of disseminating false information about the Russian military.
After the emotional exchange, Biden was seen getting on the plane that had transported the freed Americans.
RNC Research, an account on X, formerly Twitter, managed by the campaign of former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, and the Republican National Committee (RNC), shared a video early Friday morning of Biden getting on the plane and wrote, “Kamala watches Biden shuffle aimlessly across the tarmac and nearly trip up the stairs of the plane (from which the passengers had long disembarked). This is the obvious decline Kamala covered up in her thirst for power — the scandal of the century.”
Andrew Bates, White House senior deputy press secretary and deputy assistant to Biden, denied the claim that the president was just wandering around and explained his purpose for going onto the plane.
“[Biden] was personally thanking the flight crew who brought these brave individuals home to their families. Most Americans are putting partisanship aside to welcome this outstanding news for our country. Y’all should join them. Don’t be weird,” Bates wrote on X in response to RNC Research’s post.
. @POTUS was personally thanking the flight crew who brought these brave individuals home to their families.
Most Americans are putting partisanship aside to welcome this outstanding news for our country.
Y’all should join them. Don’t be weird. https://t.co/fjsjVWgib4
— Andrew Bates (@AndrewJBates46) August 2, 2024
Newsweek reached out to Bates and Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, via email as well as the RNC via online form for comment on Friday afternoon.
Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race on July 21 following weeks of interparty fighting among Democrats on whether he should pass the torch to the next generation after his debate fiasco against Trump in late June in Atlanta. Biden also endorsed Harris the day he withdrew from the race and she is now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
One of Biden’s biggest critiques was that the 81-year-old was too old and not mentally fit enough to be president for another four years. Trump, 78, has also faced criticism for his age and cognitive acuity.
After Biden struggled to speak coherently on the debate stage in Atlanta, the president was accused of hiding his alleged mental decline during his campaign. Biden’s team, meanwhile, said he had a cold the night of the debate and was suffering from jet lag. Biden plans to continue to carry out his presidential duties for the remainder of his term.
