U.S. President Joe Biden, appearing noticeably confused, ignored the directions of Secret Service agents and bizarrely chose a different path to the front door of the White House through the garden, contrary to what the agents suggested, after spending some time in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden was captured on video taking a different direction through the garden despite attempts by an agent to dissuade him from doing so. The video sparked sharp criticism of the 78-year-old president, with some questioning whether Biden is exhibiting signs of dementia. He surpassed former President Donald Trump as the oldest elected president by eight years when he took office. Sean Spicer, who served as press secretary under Trump, tweeted, "Watch this video carefully."
Satirical Republican writer Frank Fleming from "The Babylon Bee" claimed he had written about the same events depicted in the video earlier that day for a fictional satire piece. He had mentioned in the article, "President Biden talked about the success of the program, and shouted at the journalists (What is TikTok?), before getting lost on his way back to the front door of the White House."
Josh Barnett, a Republican from Arizona expected to run for Congress in 2022, tweeted that Biden is "lost" and "clueless." Jack Posobiec, editor of "Human Events," tweeted, "They literally pointed him to the walkway he should take, but he kept walking in the wrong direction." Others jokingly remarked that Biden "looks like a robot that hasn't been programmed correctly, and can't even walk on the sidewalk," while some noted signs of "dementia" and "Alzheimer's" that were apparent on him. One person commented, "I love the reaction of the agent walking behind him..."
However, a few of Biden's supporters defended the president's behavior, with one stating, "It seems the agent was indicating to the president that this path was closed and he should take the other one," questioning, "Do you think the Secret Service directs the president on the paths he should take?"
Biden has been known to make several mistakes even before he became president. His apparent cognitive decline reached a point where some House Republicans urged him to undergo cognitive tests in June. Ronnie Jackson, a former White House doctor who claimed Trump "passed" the cognitive test, also called on Biden to do the same.
In addition to stumbling as he boarded Air Force One, the commander-in-chief also tripped up last month when he claimed that "Facebook is killing people," before retracting his comments three days later, asserting that "Facebook is not killing people." Biden said during his retraction, "I hope Facebook does something about the misinformation and the outrageous information regarding the vaccine, that's what I meant."
Biden became a laughingstock at the G7 summit in June when he attempted to correct British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for "not introducing the President of South Africa," despite the prime minister having done so. The president has consistently had a list of errors in public speaking, such as implying that former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton would have made a better vice president than he did when running for vice president during Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
