Posted on 27 March 2021
Leave it to CNN to show hypocrisy when it comes to stairs. Four years ago this week, the far-left cable network mocked Donald Trump as supposedly "afraid of stairs," including getting on and off planes. But now, the station has mostly ignored Joe Biden falling as he attempted to climb Air Force One.
In March of 2017, CNN correspondent Jeanne Moos mockingly cited others, “’ScareCase’ chortled one British paper back when President Trump took Prime Minister [Theresa] May’s hand as they navigated their way up at the White House.”
More Moos mockery: “Ever since first hearing about the phobia rumor.... I’ve become slightly obsessed with watching President Trump watch his step.”
As Fox News reported, CNN (along with MSNBC) wasn’t much interested in Biden’s fall while attempting to get on Air Force One:
After sounding the alarm over President Trump's use of a ramp at the U.S. Military Academy during the 2020 presidential election, both CNN and MSNBC on Friday virtually ignored President Biden's intense fall while climbing the stairs onto Air Force One.
Biden fell three separate times while boarding the presidential plane for a trip to Atlanta. The White House later issued a statement saying he was fine and suggesting that the "wind" at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland was to blame for the ordeal.
According to Grabien transcripts, CNN spent just 15 seconds on how Biden "struggled to find his footing" on the "windy" morning and how he "left the plane with ease" upon his arrival in Atlanta.
NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck, however, found that, for Trump in 2020:
A NewsBusters analysis has found that CNN and MSNBC spent a heaping 50 minutes and 55 seconds (excluding teases) on June 15 reveling in the ordeal as a sign of Trump’s supposed mental and physical decline that had to be further investigated.
For more examples from our flashback series, which we call the NewsBusters Time Machine, go here.