Biden “One Fall Away From Losing His Presidency”: Victor Davis Hanson

Historian Victor Davis Hanson said in an interview Thursday that Joe Biden is “one fall away from losing his presidency.” The comment came after Biden was seen once again losing his footing while climbing the short stairs to board Air force One in Finland. Hanson observed that Democrats are hoping Biden, as frail and cognitively impaired as he is, will be able to finish out his term because they do not want Kamala Harris to finish his term.

Biden has a history of falling, but so far has escaped debilitating injury. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) suffered a concussion in a fall at a fundraising dinner in March, requiring hospitalization and a stint in rehab before he returned to the Senate after a six week absence.

Biden has been known to be prone to falls since shortly after the 2020 election when he broke a bone in his foot at his Delaware home in late November, which Biden blamed on the family dog (AP headline: Biden breaks foot while playing with dog, to wear a boot. Two months after taking office Biden took a very public fall climbing the long steps for Air Force One.

This video of Biden falling while boarding Air Force One on March 19, 2021 has over 15 million views on YouTube.

Biden has fallen off his bicycle (June 18, 2022) and slipped a few more times boarding Air Force One, but since falling at the Air Force Academy on June 1, Biden has been almost exclusively using the short stairs to board and debark Air Force One. On his recent trip to Europe, Biden used the longer traditional stairs to leave Air Force One (without incident), but used the short stairs to board and still lost his footing.

Biden used the short stairs on his return to D.C. on Thursday:

Biden takes no questions as he arrives back in the United States. He still has not addressed the cocaine found in his White House.

Tomorrow, Biden will head to Camp David to rest. pic.twitter.com/YAprskfRKf

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 14, 2023

Victor Davis Hanson spoke about Biden’s deteriorating mental and physical condition on display during his recent European trip in appearance on the Fox Business Network show The Bottom Line.

Hanson: “Well, it’s symptomatic of what we’ve seen, that he’s in decline at a geometric rate. So each, each session that we see him abroad becomes more embarrassing and it poses this question, “What are the Democrat Party, what are they going to do?” And they, they want him to finish his term and I don’t think they want him to run for reelection. So that explains why we’re suddenly getting leaks about his cognitive liabilities, about scandals about the Biden consortium, intemperate treatment of his granddaughter. All of that is designed, I think, to persuade him that he’s not going to run again, because I think that he would lose and they’re afraid of that. But they don’t, they don’t want him–the logical consequence of all these concerns that they voice would be the Twenty-Fifth Amendment or impeachment or something. But they never go that next step because they don’t want Kamala Harris to take over. So that’s kind of a, they’re threading the needle that, “Joe, you’ve gotta finish, you’re capable of finishing your first term but not your second.” And I think that’s where we are and that’s all symptomatic of how he’s performing or declining. It’s kinda sad, because he’s one fall away from losing his presidency, right now.”

Hanson also said he does not think Biden will be the Democrats’ presidential nominee next year and repeated his observation that the “obsequious and toadyish press” has started leaking on Biden but that Democrats are not pushing for invoking the 25th Amendment or impeachment as they did against President Trump because “they don’t want Kamala Harris to finish out his term.”

Indeed, the once toadyish press grilled White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about Biden using the short steps during a gaggle on June 29 (White House transcript excerpt):

Q Ever since — well, maybe not directly, but shortly after the President had his sandbag stumble at the Air Force Academy, he has been using the lower steps on Air Force One instead of the, kind of, truck that drives up. I’m wondering if that is because he’s been having mobility problems of any ty- — type, if it’s to address — you know, he’s had a couple incidents falling on the stairs getting up and you guys just decided that it would be better for him. Can you walk me through —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So I don’t have —

Q — what’s going on there?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I don’t have any decision process to walk through. I’m sure there’s a protocol that’s used for the — for Air Force One. I just don’t have one.

I mean, you guys see the President every day, when it — to speak to — when you — when we speak to mobility. The President always says watch him.

You know, he was a — this was a president — let’s not forget, he went to a warzone country in Ukraine and did that in a way that was incredibly effective. The world got to see him out there and meet with President Zelenskyy. And I think that’s incredibly important.

I just don’t have anything to share on (inaudible).

…Q Karine, I just had a question that’s a follow-up on the President’s health. Are there any plans for the President’s physician to brief the press about his health?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: No.

…MS. JEAN-PIERRE: All right. Thanks, everybody. Don’t fall, like I almost did.