Joe Biden appeared to be in a jovial mood after his fall at the Air Force Academy’s graduation ceremony on Tuesday.
“I got sandbagged!” Mr Biden shouted over a din on the White House in his first comments about the incident. He also flashed a broad grin and mocked getting tripped up before walking past reporters.
The president took the fall on the stage towards the end of the graduation ceremony when he appeared to trip over a sandbag. He was helped up to his feet by security personnel on the stage.
Republicans seized on footage of the fall to suggest that Mr Biden, the oldest-ever American president at 80, is not fit for the position as he runs for re-election in 2024.
Some Democrats voiced fears that Mr Biden’s perceived frailty could be an electoral burden, though others, including Mr Biden’s former chief of staff Ron Klein, chastised “nervous nellies”.
“@POTUS stood on stage and shook hands with graduates for almost 2 hours,” tweeted Mr Klein. “He tripped over a sandbag as he moved to greet some guests. Calm down you nervous nellies.”
Though Mr Biden’s age has been a constant issue during his presidency, his likeliest general election opponent, former president Donald Trump, isn’t young either.
During Mr Trump’s first term, observers raised questions about his fitness as well. In the aftermath of Mr Biden’s fall, the anti-Trump political organisation The Lincoln Project tweeted several compilations of Mr Trump’s perceived physical frailties.
Mr Trump weighed in on Mr Biden’s fall on the campaign trail in Iowa on Thursday, saying that he hoped Mr Biden “wasn’t hurt” and that the fall was “not inspiring”.
“You got to be careful about that because you don’t want that, even if you have to tiptoe down the ramp,” Mr Trump said in comments reported by The Hill.
Mr Trump’s main rival for the Republican nomination, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, had a less charitable response to the news.
“We hope and wish Joe Biden a swift recovery from any injuries he may have sustained, but we also wish the United States of America a swift recovery from the injuries it has sustained because of Joe Biden and his policies,” he said in New Hampshire.
