Even a beach chair can outsmart a former president. Joe Biden, now out of office, was caught on camera wrestling with a stubborn piece of furniture during a family outing in Malibu, Calif., marking his first Independence Day weekend since stepping down.
According to the New York Post, Biden was spotted Thursday near his son Hunter’s home, fumbling with the chair before finally settling under a red umbrella with former First Lady Jill Biden.
The scene included granddaughter Finnegan and grandson Beau Biden Jr. playing nearby in the sand. At 82, the ex-president donned his familiar aviator sunglasses and a presidential baseball cap, eventually shaking sand off his towel as he packed up. It’s a far cry from the weight of the Oval Office, but apparently not without its own small battles.
Biden’s term saw him clocking more vacation days than any modern U.S. president, with at least 577 days out of 1,463 spent away from Washington. Destinations ranged from luxurious St. Croix and Nantucket to family escapes in Rehoboth Beach, Del. While some might envy the downtime, others question if governing took a backseat.
Past trips weren’t without incident—viral clips of Biden stumbling on sand or tumbling off a bike fueled critics’ concerns about his physical and mental fitness. Those moments handed ammunition to skeptics who argued the progressive narrative shielded his decline. A beach chair struggle hardly disproves the point.
Later that Thursday, onlookers saw Biden dining with Hunter at Nobu, a favorite sushi spot, after delivering a keynote address at a human resources conference in San Diego earlier in the week. The man’s schedule still mixes leisure with public appearances, though one wonders if the chair fight stole the spotlight.
During his San Diego speech to the Society for Human Resource Management, Biden emphasized family over work obligations. “There are moments we’ll never get back,” he told attendees, reflecting on instructions he gave White House staff. Fine words, but conservatives might ask if such priorities were always evident in policy decisions.
The Malibu trip comes a year and six days after Biden’s widely criticized debate performance against Donald Trump, which ultimately pushed him out of the 2024 race. That moment cemented doubts about his sharpness, and a beachside fumble doesn’t exactly rewrite the narrative. It’s a quiet reminder of lingering questions.
Since leaving office, Republican-led investigations in Congress, alongside the Trump administration, have probed whether Biden was fully in control during his term or if aides were steering the ship. Speculation swirls around the use of the presidential autopen for executive actions and pardons, with some suggesting approvals happened without his full awareness.
Journalists in Washington have poured endless ink into the question of Biden’s mental acuity, with CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson co-authoring a book alleging a cover-up by top aides. “You can see that I’m mentally incompetent and I can’t walk and I can beat the hell out of both of them,” Biden retorted on May 30, pushing back against the authors. Sarcasm aside, the jab doesn’t silence the doubters.
In a June statement, Biden insisted, “I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.” Yet, with no cognitive test results or PSA screenings released during his term, even amidst a recent prostate cancer diagnosis, transparency remains a sore spot.
Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, is set to be deposed by the House Oversight Committee on July 9, likely facing questions about the cancer and the broader health concerns. For many on the right, the lack of public records during his presidency smells like a deliberate dodge of accountability.
Critics have long pointed to Biden’s frequent vacations as evidence of disengagement, especially when paired with public missteps. While progressives might frame this Malibu moment as a harmless family outing, conservatives see it as another snapshot of a leader who often seemed out of step—literally and figuratively.
Still, there’s a human element to consider; an 82-year-old grappling with a beach chair isn’t a crime, and family time matters. Yet, when the backdrop is a presidency marked by questions of competence, even small stumbles carry symbolic weight for those wary of unchecked liberal agendas.
As investigations continue and public curiosity lingers, Biden’s post-office life will likely remain under a microscope. A beach chair may seem trivial, but in the court of public opinion, it’s just one more piece of a puzzle many Americans are still trying to solve.
