Updated 22:29 | Published 22:16
Top Democrats have long feared that Joe Biden will appear frail in the election campaign.
Now the president has fallen again.
He fell over a sandbag, the White House says.
President Biden had just spoken and presented diplomas to recruits at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs on Thursday.
During much of the hour-long ceremony, Biden, 80, stood and shook hands with the newly graduated soldiers.
But when most things were ready, disaster struck.
Fell over sandbag
The president would turn and go sit down. Then he fell handless.
He got to his knees and a trio of people quickly came and helped him to his feet.
Biden is seen pointing to a possible reason for the fall before he could sit in the chair.
White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt writes on Twitter during the Thursday evening that “there was a sandbag on stage while he was shaking hands with people”.
“He is doing well,” writes LaBolt.
Attacks from Trump
For the Democrats, Joe Biden’s age has been a debated issue since he announced that he is running for re-election in 2024.
If the president wins another term, he will be in the White House until he is 86 years old.
Already during the 2020 election campaign, Donald Trump tried to portray Biden as a demented, confused zombie who mostly sat in his basement and was barely aware of what was happening around him.
Those attacks are not likely to decrease during the upcoming election campaign if Biden is pitted against Trump again.
The president has been caught on camera a number of times during high-profile cases. Each time, the Republicans have given new fuel to the play that the president is too old and frail for four new years in the White House.
Feared new cases
According to Alex Thompson, a reporter for the news site Axios who is writing a book about Biden, top Democrats have been bracing for months for the president to fall again during the election campaign.
He writes that on Twitter.
During Biden’s speech, he addressed the troubled world that the newly graduated soldiers will face in the service.
The president also said NATO has grown stronger despite Putin’s attempts to fracture the alliance with his invasion of Ukraine, according to Reuters.
NATO has been further strengthened by Finland – “and soon Sweden” – as members, Biden said.
In his most recent medical examination in February, the president was said to be in good health and strong enough to carry out his duties on the job.