News/Commentary

President Biden is shaken as car smashes into his motorcade, secret service agents draw weapons

December 18, 2023 | | Print Article

Visibly stunned President Joe Biden was seen rushed away moments after a driver plowed into his motorcade outside the 2024 campaign headquarters.

A slew of eyewitnesses were on hand Sunday as the press waited outside the president’s Wilmington, Delaware campaign office where he and first lady Jill Biden joined staffers in a meal. Shortly after 8 p.m., after pausing to answer a question on his poor polling, the president could be seen stalled in surprise after hearing a vehicle crash in the nearby intersection as his security detail rushed to secure him.

“Mr. President, why are you losing to Trump in the polls?” one reporter could be heard asking of Biden as hypothetical general election surveys saw him suffering defeat in a rematch with former President Donald Trump.

After quipping back about the media considering “the wrong polls,” the president’s head whipped around at the sound of the crash and he stood slack-jawed as he was ushered into an SUV where his wife was already waiting.

A longer look at the incident showed that members of the media appeared equally stunned and unsure how to react while one person could be heard telling them of the Secret Service, “They’re evacuating. You guys gotta go.”

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The camera operator entered the street where a sedan was already surrounded by law enforcement and the driver could be seen still seated behind the wheel with his hands held up as he was questioned.

While many speculated that the incident was little more than an accident, an official statement from the Secret Service did not provide the identity of the driver or detail a potential cause of the incident. Meanwhile, WCAU reported, “While Biden was walking from the campaign office to his waiting armored SUV, a sedan hit a U.S. Secret Service vehicle that was being used to close off intersections near the headquarters for the president’s departure.”

“The sedan then tried to continue into a closed-off intersection, before Secret Service personnel surrounded the vehicle with weapons drawn and instructed the driver to put his hands up,” the report added.

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U.S. Secret Service spokesman Steve Kopek told CNN in a statement, “Today, at approximately 8:09 p.m., a Secret Service vehicle securing the President’s motorcade route was struck by another vehicle in Wilmington, DE. There was no protective interest associated with this event and the President’s motorcade departed without incident.”

CNN reported that the car “unintentionally struck” the vehicle in the motorcade.

WCAU went on to indicate that the president and first lady were transported to their nearby Wilmington home “unharmed” and that Biden’s “schedule was otherwise unaffected by the incident.”

With the safety of the president known, social media users found ways to make light of the motorcade crash, including taking a shot at Biden’s penchant for big fish interpretations of past incidents.

“A future Joe story how he narrowly escaped this deadly fender bender,” snarked one as others superimposed faces of known figures over still shots of the driver.

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Kevin Haggerty
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