Texas Senator Ted Cruz added fuel to the conservative narrative that Joe Biden is unfit for office by sharing a video of the president looking confused and appearing to shake thin air following a speech in Pennsylvania this week.
Mr Biden, who was addressing the ongoing supply chain and inflation issues at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, immediately turned around from the podium and stuck his hand out on Thursday.
Republicans and conservative commentators – who have long called Mr Biden’s age a barrier to the presidency – said the so called incident was an example of his allegedly declining mental state.
That included the conservative news website The Washington Free Beacon, who Mr Cruz retweeted on Thursday night in apparent agreement, and with a “side eyes” emoji.
“After Biden finished his speech, he turned around and tried to shake hands with thin air and then wandered around looking confused,” the website said. Mr Cruz offered only the emoji as added commentary.
Other conservatives, including possible Republican congressional candidate for Tennessee Robbie Starbuck, wrote of Mr Biden: “‘Oh man. The music makes it 10x worse. This man is unfit to be President. Period.”
Harmeet K Dhillon, a former vice chairwoman of the California Republican Party, added: “Where are the White House and Biden family handlers whose job it is to make him look good? This is truly bizarre, unless they WANT him to look like a dementia patient.”
Speaking in December, First Lady Jill Biden addressed Republican concerns about Mr Biden’s health and said any suggestion of his declining mental state was “ridiculous”, despite polling showing nearly half of registered voters believing that was so.
The claims were first made before 2020’s election by Donald Trump, who challenged his then-Democrat rival to complete a “cognitive assessment” and bragged about completing a test which included identifying a picture of an elephant.
The Independent has approached the White House for comment.
