Donald Trump’s campaign is pushing out more videos of President Biden in an effort to mock White House attacks of ‘cheap fakes’ – this time showing him slowly climbing into his government SUV.
The ‘Trump War Room’ Twitter account posted a snarky post saying the ‘hardly ambulatory’ Biden was having a ‘hard time’ getting into his ride.
Trump campaing senior advisor Chris LaCivita then amplified the attack, writing, ‘Here is another “cheap fake” video.’ Another Trump senior advisor, Jason Miller, piled on by asking, ‘IS IT ABLEIST TO ASK WHY THE F JOE BIDEN CAN’T EVEN GET IN A CAR WITHOUT HELP???’
The attacks underscore how a continued front in the 2024 race will be the promulgation and interpretation of viral video elements that cut to the age and mental capacity of the candidates.
The videos themselves – and the White House attacks on Republicans for promoting them out – are feeding the cycle of attention over the age and bearing of the two candidates.
Five months before Election Day, even small clips of Biden briefly stuttering or mangling words are getting bounced around social media platforms.
The Trump camp is laying the foundation just eight days before Biden, 81, will face off against Trump, 78, in the first presidential debate, which will give millions of Americans the chance to compare the two figures.
The latest video doesn’t show Biden falling, or even freezing or even committing a trademark gaffe – just slowly entering his armored SUV after landing in Delaware on a trip to his beach house. A Secret Service agent positions himself to protect the president while he carefully positions himself and speaks to another person in the vehicle.
Biden often uses the smaller alternative to ‘The Beast,’ his armored limo, when visiting his Rehoboth beach house.
The Trump camp’s push comes after days of scrutiny of videos of Biden ‘freezing’ during public events. Videos that have gone viral have included clips of Biden greeting a parachutist after walking away from other world leaders at the G7, and standing motionless for a few sentence while other people grooved at a White House Juneteenth celebration.
Another clip had him standing still while former President Obama pointed and waived to cheering supporters, then guided Biden to the exits. That event came after Biden had fielded questions for about half an hour from talk host Jimmy Kimmel.
The White House has blasted conservatives for deliberately amplifying or misconstruing information, with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre calling them ‘cheap fakes.’
‘It’s also very insulting to the folks, the viewers who are watching it. And so we believe we have to call that out. We’ve been calling it cheap fakes. That is something that came directly from the media outlets in calling it that, the fact-checkers and calling it that. And so we’re certainly going to be really, really clear about that as well. And calling it out from where we are, from where we stand,’ she said Tuesday on MSNBC.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a question about the limo video on Wednesday, a federal holiday Biden signed into law.
Trump himself has had some stumbles, such as when at a weekend campaign rally he demanded Biden take a cognitive test, only to repeatedly get the name wrong of former White House physician and Texas Rep. Dr. Ronny Jackson. (Trump called him Ronny Johnson).