Biden taking urgent steps to stop more falls before 2024 election

Publish date: 2024-05-04

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A stumble-prone President Biden is taking urgent steps to prevent further embarrassing falls ahead of next year’s election — including working with a physical therapist to improve his balance, wearing tennis shoes and using shorter stairs on Air Force One.

Biden’s team is said to be determined to protect the 80-year-old president from taking yet another spill in public, which could hurt his electability after a recent poll showed that three-quarters of Americans consider him too old to serve a second term in office, reported Axios.

Since November 2021, Biden has been meeting with physical therapist Drew Contreras to perform exercises meant to improve his balance.

Biden has been doing the exercises most mornings on the advice of his physician, who termed them “proprioceptive maintenance maneuvers” in the president’s health summary released in February.

Biden, 80, took a bad fall after stumbling on a sandbag at the Air Force Academy in June. AP

The commander-in-chief’s balance issues — likely related to what his doctor diagnosed as arthritis in his spine and foot — have been thrown into sharp relief after several alarming stumbles.

Biden tripped over a sandbag and fell after delivering the commencement speech at the US Air Force Academy in June.

Since that incident, Biden has been more frequently sporting athletic footwear, as opposed to more slippery dress shoes.

President Biden has taken to wearing tennis shoes after repeatedly stumbling and falling in public. AP

The president also has taken to using a shorter flight of stairs on Air Force One, after several awkward stumbling mishaps on his way to the higher flight deck.

In March 2021, Biden tripped three times, and ultimately fell to his knees, while going up the longer staircase leading to the presidential plane.

A similar incident occurred in February of this year, when the president lost his footing as he made his way onto the aircraft to leave Poland.

The 80-year-old president has been using a shorter staircase on Air Force One after a string of tripping mishaps. REUTERS

But even the shorter, 14-step staircase has proven to be a challenge for Biden, who was seen stumbling and bracing himself before flying out of Helsinki, Finland, in July.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates dismissed the Axios report as fitting “an unfortunate pattern of media attempting to sensationalize something that has long been public.”

“This isn’t new,” the spokesman said, “it was proactively and transparently disclosed.”

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