U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) who after riling up the crowd infamously ran out of the Capitol when Donald Trump‘s supporters stormed the federal building on January 6, 2021, often takes swipes at what he characterizes as the frailty of incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden.
Like many other MAGA adherents, Hawley criticized the 81-year-old Biden’s physical capabilities recently when he wrote: “He can’t stand for 90 minutes – but he’s 100% able to be President? Have fun explaining that.” (Hawley was responding to a rumor that the Biden campaign had requested that the candidates be able to sit, rather than stand, for the upcoming presidential debate.)
The last time the world was facing a global war the US had a president who couldn’t stand.
I believe the “America first” crowd at that time was also in favor of the enemy. pic.twitter.com/d4X6BA1Hxp
— Jack Ryan (@jackryan212) June 18, 2024
Former Republicans who are supporting Biden in the 2024 election, including former National Security Advisor and former CIA director General Mike Hayden, are slamming Hawley’s historically and politically incorrect comment by evoking the image of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down from polio and used a wheelchair.
As one commenter wrote: “The last time the world was facing a global war the US had a president who couldn’t stand. I believe the ‘America first’ crowd at that time was also in favor of the enemy.”
Biden has demonstrated that he can stand for 90 minutes as seen at his 2024 State of the Union address in January. Biden’s stamina and physical energy that evening was so notable, even by his political foes, that Republicans accused the President of the United States of being “juiced up” on pharmaceuticals.
Note: Biden referred to Franklin Roosevelt in the very beginning of his State of the Union. He said: “In January 1941, Franklin Roosevelt came to this chamber to speak to the nation. And he said, ‘I address you at a moment unprecedented in the history of the Union.’ Hitler was on the march. War was raging in Europe.
“President Roosevelt’s purpose was to wake up Congress and alert the American people that this was no ordinary time. Freedom and democracy were under assault in the world,” Biden said, implying his purpose was the same.