Biden has spoken alone at most of his 11 rallies this year for a maximum of 33 minutes, with most of his speeches lasting well under 30. These performances are at odds with the White House’s portrayal of his presidential stamina and stand in stark contrast to the lengthy speeches delivered by his 2024 rival, former President Donald Trump.
Of 11 2024 rallies tracked by Fox News Digital, Biden spoke for more than 30 minutes in just three, defined as campaign events where Biden appeared alone on stage, standing at a podium and joined by cheering supporters, as opposed to intimate campaign stops, fundraisers or brief remarks he might make while conducting his presidential duties.
All three rallies where Trump spoke for more than 30 minutes took place in the first two months of 2024. Trump spoke for 33 minutes at a rally in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, in January, about 32 minutes at a rally at Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina, also in January, and 32 minutes at a rally in North Las Vegas in February.
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President Biden spoke in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on September 15, 2023. (Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Biden’s most recent rally was held in Philadelphia on May 29, one of only two he has held since March.
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The eight campaign rallies where Trump spoke for less than 30 minutes were: about 20 minutes at an event in Manassas, Virginia in January, about 10 minutes at an event in Culver City, California in February, about 25 minutes at a campaign event in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, and just under 30 minutes at a rally in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania in April; about 20 minutes at a campaign rally in Philadelphia in May, about 10 minutes at a rally at a restaurant in Phoenix in March, about 27 minutes at a campaign rally in Las Vegas focused on the economy in March, and about 20 minutes at a rally in Atlanta in March.
The 46th president faced criticism in his first weeks in office for holding far fewer press conferences outside of election season than his predecessors.
Notably, Biden spoke for over an hour during his March 7 State of the Union address.
Despite his past comments, Biden has asserted in recent years that he was one of the first leaders to hold public office to support same-sex marriage. (Drew Ungerer/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Trump has been holding regular rallies, except when he is on trial in Manhattan on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
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Trump’s stops include a nearly two-hour speech in Georgia after winning the state’s Republican primary in March, a 90-minute address at a rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, in May and an hour-long rally on the campus of Temple University in Philadelphia just Saturday.
Former President Trump arrives at a campaign rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, on May 11, 2024. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Biden’s relatively prolific campaign stints this year were a departure from the 2020 strategy of campaigning in a closed-off spot during the pandemic, which earned him the nickname “Basement Joe” from Trump. But outside of campaign hours, the 46th president has held far fewer press conferences than his predecessor, drawing criticism in his first weeks in office.
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Former President Trump arrives at a campaign rally in Wildwood, New Jersey on May 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Luke)
Biden began his White House term under criticism from voters and members of the media for waiting months to hold his first formal solo news conference in March 2021. His nearly three-month streak without a full press conference was the longest period without one by a newly elected president in at least the past 100 years.
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Biden has held 36 press conferences so far this year, with an average session lasting 33 minutes, according to data compiled by Fox News. During the same period under the Trump administration, the 45th president held 60 press conferences and President Barack Obama held 74.
President Biden held a joint press conference with the President of Finland after the U.S.-Nordic Summit in Helsinki on July 13, 2023. (Andrew Caballero Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Biden is scheduled to debate in Atlanta on Thursday night, facing off against Trump for the first time since their debate on Oct. 22, 2020. CNN’s presidential debate is scheduled to air for 90 minutes, including two commercial breaks, much longer than Biden typically takes to the podium during campaign events.
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When reached for comment, Biden campaign spokesman James Singer told Fox News Digital that Trump and “anyone who’s screaming in the street is going to talk for more than 30 minutes,” adding, “Nobody thinks that’s a sign of intellectual acuity. Well, maybe Dr. Ronny Jackson does.”
“Every day, as president of the United States, Joe Biden fights to protect women’s rights, build an economy that works for the rights of all Americans, and defend our democracy at home and abroad. Donald Trump couldn’t do that. That’s why he’s no longer president, but instead plays golf, sleeps in courtrooms, and shakes hands with racist billionaires who want to cut Social Security,” Singer said.
Trump has called for Biden to take a drug test before the debate and has previously suggested the president takes drugs to enhance his cognitive function. Meanwhile, former White House physician Ronny Jackson, who now serves as a Republican congressman from Texas, has also called for the president to take a drug test before the debate, citing a recent explosive Wall Street Journal report detailing interviews with about 45 lawmakers and administration officials who described Biden as an 81-year-old leader who is losing his wisdom.
“This is a Biden-specific concern based on the inexplicable change in his demeanor on Inauguration Day. [State of the Union]”President Trump has been the same his whole life and there has been no change to be concerned about. President Trump has also offered before that he would be president if Biden becomes president,” Jackson previously told Fox News Digital.
The White House countered that the Wall Street Journal article and anecdote were an example of partisan politics mocking a “wise and competent” president, but the article is just the latest example of claims that Biden has lost the acumen he displayed publicly during his decades as a Delaware senator and eventually vice president under Obama.
Special Counsel Hoare called President Biden a “caring, well-meaning elderly man with a limited memory” and said he would not recommend criminal charges for possessing classified materials. (AP Photo/Bernat Almangue)
Earlier this year, a report by special counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents after he left office as vice president under the Obama administration, deepened concerns about Biden’s handling of classified documents. The intelligence of the president.
Heo announced in February that he would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after he left the vice presidency, calling Biden a “caring, well-meaning old man with a bad memory.”
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“Based on our direct interactions and observations with him, he is someone about whom many jurors would be inclined to have reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to persuade a jury that a former president, then well into his 80s, should be convicted of a felony requiring a willful mental state,” Heo wrote in the report.
The findings sparked widespread outrage as Biden was effectively deemed too cognitively incompetent to be charged with a crime but could still hold the presidency.
President Obama grabs President Biden’s wrist at a fundraiser. (Christopher Gardner, via Storyful)
The report’s findings have been cited repeatedly by critics and media amid a series of Biden gaffes and missed signals in recent weeks, including when President Obama grabbed Biden by the wrist and tried to escort him off stage at a fundraiser in Los Angeles this month, and when Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni motioned for Biden to return to the group of world leaders at a gathering in Italy this month after Biden took a few steps away from the group to give a thumbs up to a parachutist.
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President Biden has his sights set on the paratroopers at an event during the G7 summit in Italy on June 13, 2024. (Michael Kappeler/Photo Alliance via Getty Images)
The White House fired back, saying the video, which purported to show Biden standing still and receiving assistance from those around him, was a “cheap fake peddled by discredited right-wing groups that cannot counter the president’s record and policies.”
The CNN presidential debate begins at 9 p.m. Thursday in Atlanta, Georgia. Biden is expected to head to New York City after the debate, where he will visit the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village with musician Elton John to mark the 55th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. The 1969 riots are considered the beginning of the gay rights movement in the United States.
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According to Trump’s campaign website, after the debate he will head to Virginia and hold a rally in Chesapeake about “Joe Biden’s incompetent presidency.”
