Joe Biden was riding his bike near his Rehoboth Beach home in Delaware on Friday when he fell off. He and his wife were celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary.
‘I’m fine,’ the president reportedly told reporters who witnessed the incident, which occurred at 9:30 a.m.
Biden informed reporters that he had difficulty removing his shoes from the pedals of the motorcycles, which caused him to collapse.
After the event, he was seen sitting on the sidewalk, stuck in the bike’s frame.
Biden and his wife, Jill, are seen riding along a road near their Rehoboth Beach house, accompanied by agents, as the press and residents watch with their phones and cameras.
However, gasps soon rang out after the president unexpectedly fell – right as he passed the crowd.
‘Back up! Back up’ agents can be heard saying in the footage, struggling to keep the concerned onlookers from crowding the downed Democrat.
Biden was able to raise himself up after approximately 10 seconds on the concrete, apparently telling the crowd that his ‘foot got caught.’
Biden got back on his bike about 9:44 a.m., according to a DailyMail.com writer who witnessed the accident.
During the morning ride moments before the fall, he waved and said, “Good morning!” to reporters.
The Bidens celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary on Friday and will spend the Juneteenth holiday weekend at the beach with Willlow, their first cat.
On Friday, the first lady tugged her husband away as he stopped to talk to reporters as they left the White House.
‘We gotta go,’ Dr. Biden told the president.
Biden was pressed on his trip to Saudi Arabia and two American ex-service members captured by Russians while fighting in Ukraine after leaving the White House ahead of his weekend trip.
Jill then stepped in and said ‘we gotta go’ and gave him a tug as he responded to shouts from reporters.
‘Americans should not be going to Ukraine now. Say it again: Americans should not be going to Ukraine now. They should not be going to Ukraine,’ the president said.
He had been asked about reports that two Americans who are former servicemembers and aiding the war effort may have been captured by Russians in wartorn Ukraine.
Biden is spending the weekend in Rehoboth Beach amid mounting questions over how he will deal with inflation and with the gun package negotiations in the Senate in limbo after Republican Senator John Cornyn stormed out of talks on Thursday night.
Willow flew on Marine One in her carrier, and was taken to the waiting helicopter by a valet.
‘I have been briefed, we don’t know where they are,’ the president said.
He also answered questions on Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Biden had spent the morning delivering an address pushing for more gun control measures at the 125th Anniversary Convention of the National Parent Teacher Association, while the president hosted an event on climate change.
The Bidens landed in Rehoboth about an hour after lifting off from the South Lawn, getting off Marine One and then being followed by an aide carrying Willow in her carrier a minute later.
The president and first lady have opted to spend most weekends in Delaware – and as the weather has warmed have spent more time at their beach house located near Cape Henlopen State Park, at the northern part of Rehoboth Beach.
Earlier this month, a plane flying in the airspace near the Biden residence prompted the Secret Service to remove the president briefly from the property.
‘A small private plane entered restricted airspace, all indications are by mistake, and precautionary measures were taken,’ an official told CNN about the incident. ‘There was not threat to the president or his family.’
That trip was to mark the first lady’s 71st birthday.
This time, the president and first lady will have a three-day weekend to enjoy thanks to Biden signing a bill last year to make Juneteenth – the official end of slavery in the United States – a federal holiday.
On Thursday the Associated Press published their interview with Biden – his first to print press since mid-February.
He said the blame for the 41-year high inflation rate could not be placed squarely on him.
‘Isn’t it kind of interesting? If it’s my fault, why is it the case in every other major industrial country in the world that inflation is higher? You ask yourself that? I’m not trying to be a wise guy,’ he told AP White House reporter Josh Boak.
Despite this, data from developed nations in the G7 and from China shows that the U.S. has been leading the way on inflation. The United Kingdom overtook the U.S. last month when their economy posted their own four-decade record hike in prices.
Biden pointed out that under his watch the deficit has been reduced and employment has gone up – but the Democratic president acknowledged that Americans are paying vastly more to put food on their table and fuel in their cars and that it was putting a dent in his approval rating.
‘If you want a direct barometer of what people are going to talk about at the kitchen table and the dining room table and whether things are going well, it’s the cost of food and what´s the cost of gasoline at the pump,’ he admitted.
He blamed high gas prices for the nation’s economic pessimism, saying before prices started rising, ‘Things were much more, they were much more optimistic.’
But while Biden said his message to oil companies was ‘Don’t just reward yourselves,’ he has few tools at his disposal to meaningfully bring down prices in the near term.
After more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden said the American people are ‘really, really down.’
