Did President Biden Mistake Another Plane For Air Force One As Secret Service Watched In Shock?

by Gary Leff

There’s video that’s gone viral of President Biden, appearing to be confused, trying to board the wrong plane. The assertion is that he thought the small jet was Air Force One and he was getting on by mistake.

This certainly fits the narrative that he loses situational awareness frequently – hence the need for him to withdraw his re-election bid. The question, then, is if there are concerns over whether he’ll be competent to hold office four years from now, what about today?

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and others were released from Russia as part of a 24-person, multi-country swap. The President and Vice President met released Americans who first stopped in Ankara on arrival back at Joint Base Andrews.

And the White House claims that the President was boarding their plane to greet those who hadn’t yet deplaned, including the crew.

White House correspondence for the U.K.’s Independent, Andrew Feinberg, was serving as White House pool reporter at the event and offers that there were 10 passengers on the plane – only three of which had gotten off at that point.

I was under the wing with the press pool and it was obvious to me that POTUS was boarding to speak to the people who had helped to bring these three Americans home — the pilots and seven other passengers plus whoever took the photo — because they had remained on board while the three former prisoners enjoyed their first moments back on US soil with their loved ones.

Conclusion: Biden doesn’t seem nearly as confused in this video as he does at times. It doesn’t appear that he ‘got on the wrong plane’. That doesn’t mean concerns about his acuity were wrong, but this viral ‘aviation angle to everything’ incident just doesn’t appear an example of that. Those claiming otherwise appear to be doing so unfairly.

There are still real questions though, I think, for Vice President Harris: does she still believe Biden would have been capable of running for President, and serving four years from now? If not, when did she come to believe this, and why did she remain silent? She was publicly backing him until she wasn’t. Was she lying before he announced his withdrawal when she said he was fine, or is she unable to tell the difference?

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  2. Biden did not admit that he dropped out because of dementia but that is the real reason. An alternative is that people were pressuring him to drop out not because of dementia but because it could not plausibly denied any longer.

    Kamala Harris knew about it but she didn’t want to say anything. She is very happy now that she got the nomination without primary contests. She is not as good as Joe was in his prime but tough luck for the country. That is politics. Just like Trump us not good for his party.

  4. No, he didn’t board the wrong aircraft, though of course he is obviously unfit to serve, especially if he’s unfit to run. However, this prisoner swap where we gave up very dangerous people that are no doubt going to help kill Americans in the future, and stunts like this, always for some strange reason happen right before elections with Democrats. I’m sure Putin would have happily taken the same deal 2 years ago, why wait until right before an election? And what else did you give up that we’ll find out conveniently after the election?

    Everything is about politics and optics to these people. Same with the ridiculous proposal to amend the constitution to put restrictions on the SCOTUS. Why suddenly bring this up now, when you’ve had 3 1/2 years? Meanwhile, not a single press conference since Kamala was anointed the Democratic nominee 2 weeks ago, despite not a single person voting for her. She’s not taking any questions from anyone, only empty teleprompter speeches. She’s adopting the hide in the basement strategy because it worked for Biden, and the press lets her get away with it, so why not.

    I’m not sure how much this country can take of democrats “saving” democracy.

  6. Meanwhile Trumps frontal dementia has him grabbing at the water bottle of the person interviewing him. Classic dementia behavior.

    “ taken-in context and collectively with Trump’s other progressive signs, this specific food-stealing/drink-snatching behavior, with high probability, is a manifestation of Frontotemporal Dementia”

  8. Any Air Force plane the President is on is Air Force 1. Same with Marine 1, which is usually a helicopter. A commercial or GA flight with an active President would be Executive 1.

    Of course, Biden was greeting the released hostages who returned from Russia – but View From the Right Wing had to use this poorly taken title to try and discredit him.

  10. Why amplify this stuff? Every example of Biden seeming to be “confused” turns out to be cropped videos or an incomplete narrative. He has obviously slowed down, and the malaprops for which he has always been famous have gotten worse and more frequent, but he doesn’t have dementia. My father is in the early stages of dementia, and this ain’t that. Joe is just old and tired. I’m glad he’s not running, but I’m also not concerned about him finishing out his term.

  13. In 172 days, he’ll be kickin’ back, retired.

    I would say the beach, but Deleware is mighty chilly in January.

    (Hmmm… I wonder what non-extradition countries Trump is considering for his residency. There are only 16 from which to choose. Possibly rotating stays in Andorra and one of his hotels in China)

  14. Speaking of demanding answers, I would say Vance needs to answer the question when he came to the conclusion Trump was not America’s Hitler (his word choice.). Maybe politicians are opportunists.

  15. Biden could be almost brain dead, and would be a superior choice over a serial liar, toddler in chief, horrible businessman, insurrectionist, Putin/Kim loving piece of human excrement named Donald Trump

  16. Who cares? How does this have anything to do with the travel industry? Is this now a political site?

    FYI, any aircraft can be designated as Air Force One the moment the President steps onboard that aircraft.

    Let’s keep the politics off the webpage.

  17. Really Gary? Slow news days can just mean that you get a break. Take them and spare the site the credibility debates.

  19. There’s a feature running on another site where the reporter selects four or five clickbait titles and then – to spare you the effort of clicking through to get the “answer” – delivers it (which is often simplistic and disappointing) in a single line. I’ll submit this one and see if it makes the cut.

  20. Any USAF plane he boards becomes Air Force One. If it was a navy plane, it would be Navy One. If it was a flight operated by a private company it would be Executive One.

  21. Trump is furious that Biden Admin pulled off getting the hostages back from Russia even before the November election.

    Just a few months back, Trump was bragging that he would get the American hostages back from Putin as soon as he either won the election or became President again and that Putin would never return them as long as “weakest President ever” “Joe” was President. Again, that weirdo Trump was wrong both about his President Biden and about his buddy Putin.

  22. @GWwonder

    Who owned the Gulfstream. It seems that ownership changed on July 29. Suspicious. It changed to the Bank of Utah, previously Bombardier and previously a named individual.

  23. I came here expecting this article to be garbage and was not disappointed. Get those clicks!

  24. I have rarely commented on a story and have never personally attacked Gary, and I won’t do so now. This is (evidently) his livelihood and if I don’t like what he writes, I can go someplace else.

    That being said, and with politics aside….this is the most worthless story I’ve ever read on this site and the biggest waste of my time.

    Gary, please go back to stories about people putting their bare feet up in first class. It is, at least tangentially, related to the purpose of your website. This story involved an airplane but it doesn’t make it an airplane story.

  25. If Biden did indeed do this,then it’s not surprising at all. The guy literally has the early signs of dementia and he should of been pushed to step down of leader of the U.S. especially since he Does Not have full control of his faculties at all, which also means that he is UNFIT to lead

  26. Someone directed him to the plane He can not just walk off. He can not even take a piss without someone there

  27. My mom has dementia. The early stages are difficult to identify, and if Biden does have dementia, it’s in the very early stages. The problem is that no one can identify what progression would look like. This means a decision to not run is very different than a decision to resign. The stress of the presidency and experiencing that for another four years or even the stress of the election plus being president are likely to be a bigger part of the decision not to run, but that also makes it more likely to allow Biden to successfully complete his term.

  28. Cut the political commentary. This was not a travel or airline related news item, this is clearly the author showing his political bias. Not appropriate for this type of site.

  29. This trade was not too bad. The last trade was really bungled by Biden, trading a basketball player for an arms dealer. Biden should have at least gotten the basketball play and the Marine, who spent over 2,000 days in a Russian prison. Looks like the U.S. Army soldier, who may be a common criminal, was passed up for release.

  30. Who is going to be the first to thank Tomri for sharing Tomri’s fantasy about his President’s bathroom activities (and private parts)?

    Just when you may have thought MAGA fans couldn’t get even weirder than their MAGA Lord, someone like Tomri saves the day and shows that MAGA Lord has competition from his fans. What a country!

  31. It seems to me that Putin would
    Much.rather have a push over President (Harris)than a hard ass man who has held the position guess what PEACE!

  32. Come on man, all this TDS!
    You idiots are rooting for a lying, hypocritical marxist in KH.
    Can’t wait for #47 DJT

  33. I respectfully suggest that you adhere to miles/points/travel and leave the factual political reporting to trained journalists, like the pool reporter you mention. He’s a pool reporter for a reason: a journalist working for a mainstream media outlet.

    Truly, I’m disappointed in this post. I and many like me come to you for insight and insider info on our shared travel-related interests. If you continue to mix election-year politics in with your usual content, you’re discounting the varied opinions of your readers like me who really want you to be the “Thought Leader in Travel” and trust your judgment in that realm. This sort of slant dilutes your brand.

    You’re better than this.

  34. The bar for your articles is already insanely low (have you not seen how much you are roundly mocked throughout the travel blogosphere) but you still someone manage to lower it, truly stunning achievement.

  36. It’s possible the Sniffer-in-Chief mistakenly picked up residual traces of another Burisma cash (bribes) payout.
    Or more likely, the puppet master is trying to make him look worse than the DEI hire and his unelected replacement.

  37. You should have a separate political blog instead of polluting a travel blog with completely irrelevant crap like this.

    Or maybe you should count the number of travel days that the prior President did, after berating his predecessor for golfing and promising that he would never do any golfing himself once in office? See, there would be a travel angle in this political commentary.

    Sheesh.

  39. Oh please , stop this non sense media !! Jesus !!! Was AF1 parked close by ??? I can’t stand the media any longer. You’re becoming glorified tabloid reporters . Enough !!!!

  40. There are still real questions though, I think, for Vice President Harris: does she still believe Biden would have been capable of running for President, and serving four years from now? If not, when did she come to believe this, and why did she remain silent? She was publicly backing him until she wasn’t. Was she lying before he announced his withdrawal when she said he was fine, or is she unable to tell the difference?

    Mindbogglingly ridiculous…

    FYI: When he quit the race, Biden did something that The Former Guy (TFG) would never ever do, whiich was to put the interests of the country above his own. Why then is it important to know, especially now, whether Harris thought Biden would be up to the job, when the decision of whether or not he should run again was never hers in the first place? Importantly, is it not all a moot point now that Biden is out?

    What is still very relevant is whether TFG — already the worst POTUS in history, is almost as old as Biden, and is railing about sharks and Hannibal Lecter — is coherent enough to be allowed back in the White House and be trusted with ‘nuclear football’, especially after having been convicted, twice, including for rape, and is facing a slew of lawsuits. It is highly relevant to know whether America wants to have a convicted felon not only as its leader, but also as the most powerful man on the planet.

    Like others have said, you can either do a travel blog or a political blog. You cannot do both and maintain credibility, and it shows…

  41. Here are some great “DEI hires”: Simone Biles, Sergey Brin, Carl Lewis, Jesse Owens. Barack Obama, Michael Jordan, Colin Powell, Sergey Brin, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein and so on. Note that I left Elon Musk out, but hiring that famous drug-damaged billionaire immigrant isn’t my idea of a good DEI hire.

  43. “Did President Biden Mistake Another Plane For Air Force One As Secret Service Watched In Shock?”

    To answer the headline question: No, except in the heads of those who wish the answer to be “yes” or otherwise want to stir the pot.

  44. I found this amusing, If you post the blog post headline question in your comments here, it automatically goes into the “awaiting moderation” queue. Doesn’t that say something? 😀

  45. Is MAGA World a more untapped market for making it rain with credit card referral money than never-Tr*mpers? I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the case. I think it’s pretty safe to assume that the average Republican in Alabama is less likely to pull out an airline affiliated credit card at the nearest Walmart than the average Democrat in Minnesota is likely to pull out an airline credit card at the nearest Target.

  46. @GUWonder I do not use the term “DEI hires.” Those who do seem to use it for individuals who (they believe) would not have been hired except they allowed a box to be checked on diversity reports. None of those you listed qualify under that definition. I have seen hiring constrained by a requirement the person hired must come from one or more underrepresented groups.

  47. They are all DEI hires — people from historically discriminated groups who got hired where one or more of their grandparents would have been rejected merely because of their perceived ethnic or sex status even if having the same qualifications as those in the “good old boys network”.

    It’s a good thing when employers are encouraged to hire people of a different ethnic or sex background than the employers/hiring managers. Great way to combat segregation and encourage great American integration and greater prosperity for more people. “DEI hires” making America greater and greater.

  48. VFTW …. The politics blog Where travel is just the background. In my RSS reader I have a lot of blogs and am able to predict correctly 90% of the time by an anti-union or a right wing slant if something is from WFTW by its title alone. Sooooo predictable but it’s good too for the clicks because that’s what it all comes down to i$n’t?

  50. “Great way to combat segregation and encourage great American integration and greater prosperity for more people. “DEI hires” making America greater and greater.”

    “Nothing so epitomizes the politically correct gullibility of our times as the magic word “diversity.” The wonders of diversity are proclaimed from the media, extolled in the academy and confirmed in the august chambers of the Supreme Court of the United States. But have you ever seen one speck of hard evidence to support the lofty claims?” Thomas Sowell

  51. When I read BOARDING AREA and View From The Wing – I want to read about aviation stuff – NOT political stuff. Please keep Politics and election out of the comments – at least for the next 100 days !

  54. DEI = Stop hiring/promoting unqualified people just because they’re white men.

  55. The American public needs to take a hard, hard look at the “logic” of:

    “He’s not competent to win an election, as a sitting incumbent with all those advantages and despite talking up Mumblenonmics for years, yet he’s STILL capable of handling the nuclear football?”

    It’s pretty clear that the sitting party values winning elections far more than they consider policy and competence. Never has their hypocrisy been clearer, since they promoted “The best Biden ever” before tossing him under the bus in a most un-democratic power play.

    Now let’s talk about the denied Secret Service protection for RFK, ok?

  57. Thanks to the Civil Rights Movement and the following increase in DEI hires in the decades since, American prosperity has skyrocketed much more than in places such where diversity and inclusion of minorities has not come or come with awful segregation and a stronger “good old boys” network. It is why America is the economic envy of the world and such a global magnet despite the other issues the country has. Salute the American flag and salute DEI in America for making America great and greater.

  58. A perfect example of “Post hoc ergo propter hoc”.

    Again, still waiting for definitive proof of the supposed value of “diversity”.

  59. @ James N It was very clear to me as an academic that diversity never meant diversity in opinion, area of expertise, or anything else of academic merit. It was about your DNA/what box they could check.

  62. Really, Gary? You put way too much on one person. The executive branch is much more than Biden. Sure, Biden is suffering from the job. All presidents (except maybe Trump) age incredibly on the job. The 4 or 8 years take a huge toll. Biden is not immune from it as well. He’s always had the heart to be a public servant. I’m glad he realized he’s not capable to serve another 4 years. He should retire and take the time he has left to be with his family. It’s a bit ridiculous to put VP Harris in the position of justifying whether Biden can serve another 4 years. I’m sure on a whole, Biden has been adept at the job. Does he have some off moments? Yes, but as you suggest, many people try to make something out of nothing. I think Biden on his worst day is way more capable of serving the country’s best interests than Trump ever will. He has a team that knows how to properly govern.

  63. Why the misleading headline and more importantly, why the article? Why validate some toolhead’s false narrative who clearly has a political agenda when you ultimately conclude that the narrative has no validity? I’m sure many people read only part of the article and came away with the wrong impression. This is shameful on your part, Gary!

  64. @James N I never cared for Rush Limbaugh, but if I was in the car when his show was on, I’d briefly tune in on the chance Walter Williams was filling in. I admired the clarity of his arguments for the less-informed in economics. I believe that has aided my ability to communicate more complicated issues to others. RIP Dr. Williams

  65. The billionaire boy’s club is cheering for Trump and are against diversity, equity and inclusion in American politics. Do those billionaires and their fanboys miss Biden while still attacking him on his way to a graceful exit as a true American patriot? No. They fear a DEI victory will get the billionaires closer to having to pay more taxes as a percentage of their income even as it will still be less than the taxes that an American public school teacher with supplemental income from being the school football coach has to pay as a percentage of their income.

    A fake hillbilly paid for and brought to you by the billionaire boys’ club vs the Minnesota school teacher whose idea of bonus pay was the money from being the school football coach? Game on, I go with the latter as being a more authentic American and as having a better sense of what America needs than the the billionaire and mega-millionaire class that have become such amazing experts in and beneficiaries from tax avoidance schemes that they dread losing their privileged position of paying lower taxes as a percentage of their global income than middle class Americans.

  66. A higher percentage of their income? Seriously, people are still rehashing this old canard? I call it the Warren Buffett fable and it works very well on the uninformed and mathematically-challenged.

    In 2020, the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid a 25.99 percent average rate, more than eight times higher than the 3.1 percent average rate paid by the bottom half of taxpayers and paid over 42% of all federal taxes. The top 50 percent of all taxpayers paid 97.7 percent of all federal individual income taxes, while the bottom 50 percent paid the remaining 2.3 percent.

    Finally, the government operates on dollars, not percentages. A millionaire, paying a 25% tax rate will pay $250,000, while someone earning $70,000 and paying 30% will send $21,000 to the feds. Which one of them is funding a higher “percentage” of government services?

  68. @GUWonder. I find it absurd that you define Michael Jordan as a DEI hire because his grandfather would not have been allowed in the NBA.

  69. It has been well reported that Biden boarded the private plane that brought the hostages home to thank the pilots and the staff from various agencies, who were with the hostages from the moment they were released.

    Anyone watching could see him walk away from the VP on the tarmac and purposefully climb those plane steps. Watching, I had no doubt why he was going into the plane — doing what gracious, considerate leaders do in all walks of life.

    Some in the media seem so very dense. Yes, Biden has some issues, but being kind and caring is NOT one of them.

  70. DEI is about people getting to be in places and do their job where their own parents, grandparents or great grandparents would have been rejected because of their perceived ethnicity, religion or sex.

    Katie Ledecky is a great DEI swimmer. It wasn’t that long ago where being Jewish meant some engineering or law firms in the US wouldn’t hire you or allow you to join the local country club and use its pool because of perceived ethnic or religious background of an applicant. America is so much greater with DEI.

  71. James N, you seem to be even more of a novice when it comes to the ways of tax avoidance for the billionaire class than even I.

    One key of the game is to delay realization of taxable income gains while being able to get access to a lot of low-cost cash using the assets for big lifestyle benefits anyway. And they don’t even need to necessarily be heavy on depreciable assets to pull this off systematically.

  72. Nice strawman, GU! Now, try and address the data I included in my previous post.

    Also, can you provide the evidence to validate your argument that society is “better off” due to DEI policies? If you’re not capable, we’ll understand. Because we already know you can’t. .

  73. “ A millionaire, paying a 25% tax rate ….. while someone earning $70,000 and paying 30%” — that is an example from James N’s own words above.

    Thank you for your own-goal, James N, on a millionaire paying a lower percentage of their income as tax than a person living on a teacher or nurse’s salary.

    Anti-DEI fanboys around the world are eating DEI America’s dust and it shows in the economic numbers. As other countries turn toward being more hostile to DEI or remain hostile to DEI, they stall and fall further behind America the great DEI country. The pro-DEI mentality is great for progress and has come with America widening the economic lead over other relatively high income countries that are — or have become increasingly — hostile to DEI.

    America risks sinking faster in relative power against the likes of China and India if the anti-DEI mentality becomes more defining of the US than pro-DEI mentality. Make America ever greater with great DEI — and I don’t mean Donald, Eric and Ivanka.

  74. Anti-DEI fanboys around the world are eating DEI America’s dust and it shows in the Olympics too.

  77. mike s is still hating on America’s great DEI, including the great American DEI athletes brining home so many medals from this Olympics too.

    …. and mike s is probably still upset about the Biden Admin getting our hostages back from Putin’s Russia because he wanted it to be done on his MAGA Lord’s terms: pushed off until after November’s election.

  78. mike s is still hating on America’s great DEI, including the great American DEI athletes brining home so many medals from this Olympics too. …. and mike s is probably still upset about the Bid*n Admin getting our hostages back from Putin’s Russia because he wanted it to be done on his MAGA Lord’s terms: pushed off until after November’s election.

  79. “Katie Ledecky is a great DEI swimmer. It wasn’t that long ago where being Jewish meant some engineering or law firms in the US wouldn’t hire you or allow you to join the local country club and use its pool because of perceived ethnic or religious background of an applicant.” Katie was raised and is a devout Catholic (her paternal g-mom is/was Jewish). But, you see, every successful American is (in someone’s over-reaching definition) a DEI hire. LaBron is a DEI hire—see DEI is great!

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