President Biden jogged to greet supporters and reporters during his inaugural parade, a change of pace from when he carefully descended a series of U.S. Capitol stairs while reaching for his wife’s hand before his swearing-in ceremony. His inaugural events were a showcase of a president eager to be perceived as strong even while being unable, at times, to mask his age.
Biden, 78, veered off from his family on Wednesday afternoon in front of the White House after he got out of the presidential limousine, known as “the Beast,” to walk the last part of his toned-down inaugural parade. He hustled over to the parade route’s fencing to say hello, for instance, to Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser.
But earlier, as he and first lady Jill Biden were making their way across the Capitol’s marble crypt and down several flights of stairs onto the building’s west front, the 46th president seemed stiffer and appeared to be favoring his right leg, the one he injured during his transition period while playing with one of his dogs. As the first couple left the legislative hall a few hours later, the president visibly limped.
Biden leaving his family, who also were strolling along Pennsylvania Avenue holding hands, to acknowledge people gathered to see his White House arrival was a departure from habits exhibited since traveling to the capital city for his inauguration. He’s tended to stay close to his wife, at times taking her by the elbow rather than just her hand.
Biden hurt his right foot last November after he tripped over one of his German shepherds, Major, and twisted his ankle following a shower. When his doctor initially briefed the press, he suggested the now-president would be in a walking boot for “several weeks” as the hairline fractures healed. Biden debuted a foot brace a couple of days later, but he ditched the aid shortly afterward.
The president has, at times, looked his age, walking slowly and with a short stride. He appears noticeably thinner than when he was vice president in the Obama administration.
Jill Biden often appears aware of such moments.
She has moved his hand from her elbow to holding her own, as she did Tuesday evening. She also, once on the campaign trail, made sure her husband, eager to joust with reporters, was the recommended six feet from the journalists.
And when the new commander in chief has seemed unaware of his destination during or after an event, the now-first lady has been quick to get to his side and steer him in the right direction.
“Weight-bearing CT results were very encouraging,” Dr. Kevin O’Connor said in a statement last December after a two-week check-up. “The small fracture in the intermediate cuneiform is barely detectable, and the small fracture in the lateral cuneiform is healing as expected. No more extensive injury was identified.”
Biden took his oath of office Wednesday with a pitch for national unity, a theme he’s been talking about since launching his campaign in April 2019.
“We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts,” he said during this address.
Trump based his 2020 campaign, in part, on arguing his opponent was too physically and mentally frail to become the next leader of the free world. But Biden shot back that he is in better shape than the heavier Trump, a man he once challenged to a fistfight.
As the new chief executive got to work in the Oval Office, Fox News personalities used the five o’clock hour to mock him as, in the words of one, too cognitively and physically weak “to stand up to anything.”
However, a short time later, Biden warned appointees he swore in via video chat that if they showed disrespect to anyone while working for his administration, he intends to “fire you on the spot.”
