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?
Joe Biden tried to board the wrong plane.
He's still president, btw. pic.twitter.com/TFMSbEsKKp
— Ian Haworth (@ighaworth) August 2, 2024
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.
Hostages released ! #EvanGershkovich #PaulWhelan pic.twitter.com/wnmsdHPf9E
— Nadia Bilbassy Charters ناديا البلبيسي (@nadia_bilbassy) August 2, 2024
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?
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 !
I’m curious, Ric, do you follow those exact guidelines on your blog site?
DEI = Didn’t Earn It
DEI = Stop hiring/promoting unqualified people just because they’re white men.
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?
A rock would be a better president than the orange thing.
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.
A perfect example of “Post hoc ergo propter hoc”.
Again, still waiting for definitive proof of the supposed value of “diversity”.
@ 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.
He went to thank the pilots.
Do your homework before posting this BS.
@Dave W…You might enjoy this essay from Walter Williams.
http://walterewilliams.com/diversity-obsession/
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.
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!
@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
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.
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?
@James N But, of course, a paper from the White House “estimate[s] an average Federal individual income tax rate of 8.2 percent for the period 2010-2018” for “America’s 400 wealthiest families.” How? You redefine income to include unrealized and currently unrecognized (by IRS rules) gains.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2021/09/23/what-is-the-average-federal-individual-income-tax-rate-on-the-wealthiest-americans/
@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.
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.
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.
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.
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. .
“ 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.
Anti-DEI fanboys around the world are eating DEI America’s dust and it shows in the Olympics too.
The guwonder idiot can’t help himself. What a waste of gray matter..
@Matthew: so brilliantly put. Thanks!
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.
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.
“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!