President Joe Biden has a big (small) problem: Stairs.
Specifically, Biden can no longer manage the large stairs entering Air Force One anymore. He’s been relegated to the smaller steps that lead to the lower level of the plane for apparent safety reasons.
Biden’s numerous falls getting up the normal Air Force One stairs has caused massive criticisms. Opponents see it as proof that Biden is too old to serve effectively.
Now he’s not even trying to take the normal stairs — further evidence of his growing incapacity.
Even those aren’t safe. Take a look —
President Joe Biden nearly trips and falls walking up the stairs to Air Force One again. pic.twitter.com/W1cJZ58XEG
— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) July 14, 2023
It comes as Biden is preparing to beat back strong Democratic Party primary challenges heading into the 2024 election.
“The narrative about the successes of the Biden administration is smoke and mirrors,” said India Walton, a far-Left progressive who beat Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in the 2021 Democratic primary but lost to him in the general election.
Walton complained that Biden had not done more to protect abortion and civil rights after Supreme Court rulings that weakened both. She also noted that student debt will continue, even with Biden’s attempt to forgive much of it.
“We have not ‘Built Back Better,’” said Walton, referencing Biden’s 2020 campaign slogan. “And it’s very frustrating to be a working-class American and being fed this ‘vote blue’ narrative, when the real conditions of our everyday lives are not changing.”
Such a backlash could hurt Biden in 2024 given that he is likely to face a challenge from the left — progressive activist Cornel West is mounting a Green Party run — and could be squeezed from the center — the political group No Labels is trying to recruit a centrist candidate.
That means even a small erosion of progressive energy for Biden might erase the thin margins that delivered him critical swing states like Arizona and Georgia in 2020.
It would be difficult for Democrats to reassemble the same broad voter bloc that put Biden in the White House if some elements were motivated more by hatred of former President Donald Trump than enthusiasm for Biden.
Especially if he continues to fall in the polls just like he does on stairs.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article