Biden’s camp criticizes viral videos that were seen as proof of the US president’s fragility.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has accused his opponents of spreading misinformation about his physical and mental fitness after a series of viral videos reignited concerns about the Democratic standard-bearer’s age.
At a news conference on Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said clips purporting to show Biden’s decline were misleadingly edited or misrepresented.
“That says everything we need to know about how desperate the Republicans are here,” Jean-Pierre told reporters, labeling the video clips “fake and cheap.”
Republican social media accounts and conservative media outlets shared videos purporting to show Biden, 81, freezing or wandering alone in recent days.
In one clip, Biden appears to appear to walk away from other world leaders during a skydiving demonstration at the G7 summit in Italy.
However, versions of the clip that circulated on right-wing social media accounts and the New York Post were cut to obscure a skydiver whom Biden was walking toward as he appeared to walk away.
Another widely circulated clip shows Biden standing motionless, surrounded by people dancing to music at a Juneteenth celebration held last week at the White House.
“The president stood there listening to the music and didn’t dance… Sorry, I didn’t know that not dancing was a health problem,” said Jean-Pierre.
“That’s a weird thing to signal. If you look at the people around you… there were some people who weren’t dancing either.”
In the latest clip to go viral, Biden pauses in front of the crowd at a fundraising gala for about seven seconds before being ushered off the stage by former President Barack Obama.
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in an X post on Monday that Biden’s critics were pretending that “having a crowd cheer for a few seconds is somehow wrong” to divert attention from president’s achievements.
Former US President Donald Trump, who is running against Biden on the Republican ticket in November, has repeatedly attacked the president over his age and physical shape, even though, at 78, he is just three years younger.
Biden or Trump would be the oldest person to hold the office of president until the end of their term.
Although some videos of Biden appearing frail or confused have been misleadingly edited, opinion polls have shown that voters view his age as a concern and are less concerned about Trump’s health.
In a New York Times/Siena poll released in March, 73% of registered voters said Biden was too old to be an effective president, compared to 42% who said the same about Trump.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
