President Joe Biden spoke at the Air Force Academy’s graduation on Thursday. He delivered a word salad, and he fell after leaving the stage. “By the way, I met with the — who are those guys that fly over shortly? You’ve heard of them, haven’t you? Three of them are women,” Biden said at the time.
That night, former President Donald Trump spoke at a town hall moderated by Sean Hannity of Fox News… and Trump distanced himself from some critics of Biden’s mental acuity.
Trump fielded questions about Biden’s fall and his mangled remark.
“It was not too good. It’s sad, it’s sad. They’re repesenting — we are all representing — the country. You become president, and you’re sort of not allowed to do that, but it’s happened. And it’s happened pretty badly,” Trump said. “They count those acts, y’know. They never forget, but that was a bad fall.”
But Hannity wanted Trump to push further.
“I have asked you repeatedly about what you think about Joe Biden’s cognitive state. I’ve asked you about, is he up to the job physically, mentally? You have been very reluctant to go there. I am not reluctant,” Hannity said. “Why are you reluctant to call that out?”
“I don’t know if I’m supposed to say this,” Trump began. “I actually called Sean, and I asked Sean not to joke about it, because he used to joke about it. And I said, honestly, I don’t think it looks good for you or for anybody to joke about it, because it’s a serious problem. I just said I don’t think it’s good for anybody, and, y’know, it’s not appropriate. We can speak about it if you want, but I don’t think you should joke about it.”
However, Trump also offered a concession.
“I do say this. I think it’s the most serious time and the most dangerous time in the history of our country. We have nuclear weapons on lots of different areas. We have Russia. We have North Korea. We have Iran,” Trump said. “This is the most dangerous time in the history of our country because of the power of the weaponry, and we have somebody that doesn’t understand what’s happening. And that’s a very dangerous thing. It’s a very bad thing.”
Hannity stopped his on-air jokes about Biden’s “sippy cup” in 2021 after growing more concerned about Biden’s mental acuity. “Now I realize how serious it is,” Hannity said Thursday.
Earlier that day, Trump wished Biden well after learning about the fall.
“He actually fell down? Well I hope he wasn’t hurt,” Trump said after an audience member told him about what had happened to Biden. “The whole thing is crazy. You gotta be careful about that … ’cause you don’t want that, even if you have to tiptoe down a ramp.”
The audience laughed as Trump recounted slowly inching his way down a ramp at the U.S. Military Academy graduation.
“If he fell, it’s too bad,” the former president said at the time. “We gotta just get this thing back on track. That’s a bad place to fall when you’re making, I think it was the Air Force Academy, right? That’s not inspiring.”
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The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.