A video of President Joe Biden leaving the stage with former President Barack Obama at the end of a fundraiser on Saturday night in Los Angeles is garnering criticism and attention on social media.
The footage, first shared on Sunday by The Hollywood Reporter‘s Chris Gardner, on X, formerly Twitter, shows Biden, flanked by Obama and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, standing still on stage as the crowd applauds for approximately 10 seconds before Obama reaches for Biden then walks with him off the stage.
Gardner’s video has over 600,000 views as of 5:40 p.m. ET on Sunday. The viral video clip has now been shared by a host of popular social media accounts, mostly by vocal critics of the president.
“Biden froze again last night and had to get escorted out by Obama. Is this normal?” the conservative @endwokeness account asked on X.
“Biden freezes before Obama grabs his arm and leads him off stage. Yikes!” the RNC Research X account wrote.
“So embarrassing. The Democrats can’t let this go on, surely?” British journalist Piers Morgan asked.
Newsweek has emailed the Biden campaign Sunday afternoon for comment. This article will be updated with any provided statements.
That’s a wrap on record-setting Democratic fundraiser for Joe Biden’s reelection campaign (netting $28M). Former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden offer final waves to Peacock Theater crowd as Obama then grabs Biden’s hand to lead him offstage following 40-minute… pic.twitter.com/xbE2jf3jdz
— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) June 16, 2024
Meanwhile, members of Biden’s campaign team and staff also weighed in on the video.
Rufus Gifford, the finance chair for the Biden-Kamala Harris 2024 campaign, disputed the accusations that Biden “froze” while reposting a New York Post article about the viral moment.
“Nothing remotely close to this actually happened,” Gifford wrote Sunday on X.
Andrew Bates, White House senior deputy press secretary, also took aim at the perception of the clip.
“By pretending the President taking in an applauding crowd for a few seconds is somehow wrong, all they’re really admitting is – once again – is they can’t take on the leadership that’s fueling the strongest economic growth in the world & bringing violent crime to a 50 year low,” he posted to X.
Journalist Olga Nesterova posted a video on X showing the end of the fundraiser from an angle that zooms into Biden, Obama and Kimmel. A smiling Biden is shown pumping his fist to the applauding audience. However, the video shared by Nesterova zooms out as Biden begins to stand still before exiting the stage.
