President Joe Biden, 80, now almost exclusively uses Air Force One’s shorter, retractable stairs to board the presidential aircraft, after he stumbled up the plane’s steps several times and questions were raised about his health as he runs for reelection.
Politico reported Wednesday that two Biden advisers privately acknowledged that the president’s now-frequent use of the shorter staircase was intentional to ensure easier travel and minimize the chances of him taking another spill.
Presidents have the option of using a staircase on wheels – with 26 steps to climb – or a shorter, 14-step staircase that folds into the plane.
While Biden continues to use the taller staircase, thus making a grander entrance, when he arrives at various destinations, he’s been opting to take the shorter staircase to board the plane on almost every occasion since falling over a sandbag last month.
The president first lost the battle against Air Force One’s rickety exterior staircase just two months into his tenure, in March 2021, as he headed to Atlanta, Georgia.
President Joe Biden is now almost exclusively boarding Air Force One using the shorter, retractable stairs (left, pictured on Thursday), after falling up the stairs three times. He stumbled up the stairs in March 2021 (right)
Another angle of President Joe Biden’s March 2021 fall as he boarded Air Force One using the taller, grander staircase at Joint Base Andrews
Then in February, as he left Warsaw, Poland – after his secret 10-hour each way train trip into Ukraine – he briefly tripped up the steps again.
It happened a third time in early March, as the president briefly stumbled as he boarded his plane en route to Selma, Alabama.
He’s had other spills too.
There was the time last June in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, when the president got his shoe stuck in his bike’s toe-clip, falling over sideways in front of a crowd of onlookers and reporters.
His biggest stumble of late happened when he tripped over a sandbag at the U.S. Air Force Academy’s graduation ceremony in Colorado last month.
The White House won’t officially acknowledge accommodations are being made.
Late last month, Bloomberg’s Justin Sink asked Karine Jean-Pierre about Biden using the shorter staircase during an in-flight gaggle aboard Air Force One.
President Joe Biden briefly fell as he walked up the stairs to board Air Force One as he departed Warsaw after a three-day trip to Kyiv and the Polish capital in February 2023
President Joe Biden once again had trouble navigating Air Force One’s stairs – briefly stumbling as he boarded the presidential aircraft as he departed from Selma, Alabama, in March 2023
President Biden also famously fell off his bike near his Delaware beach house after he had trouble removing his feet from the toe clips last June
Sink pointed out that shortly after Biden’s sandbag stumble he started using the retractable stairs and asked the press secretary if the president was experiencing ‘mobility problems.’
‘If it’s to address – you know, he’s had a couple incidents falling on the stairs getting up and you guys just decided it would be better for him,’ Sink mused.
Jean-Pierre responded by saying that she didn’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 it,’ she said.
‘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,’ she continued. ‘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 Zelensky. And I think that’s incredibly important.’
The trip ended with Biden tripping up the stairs of Air Force One.
Sink also pointed to the White House’s disclosure the day before that the president had started using a CPAP machine to treat his sleep apnea.
‘We’ve seen a change in the medical technology he’s using, we’ve seen a behavioral change here. Is there anything that you guys are seeing that represents a medical change of any sort with the president?’ Sink pressed.
Jean-Pierre then pointed to the medical report the White House put out about the president – which was released in February, before Biden stumbled twice boarding Air Force One and prior to the sandbag incident.
