Trump says he told Hannity not to joke about Biden’s cognitive ability

Former President Trump said Thursday that he previously reached out to Fox News host Sean Hannity to suggest he stop joking about President Biden’s cognitive abilities.

Trump participated in a town hall event with Hannity in Iowa, where the two spoke at length about Biden’s fall earlier in the day at the Air Force Academy commencement ceremony.

Trump said it was a “bad fall” but would not go further. Hannity noted that Trump has been reluctant to attack Biden over his physical and mental acuity, though the Fox host said he has no issues doing so himself.

“I asked Sean not to joke about it,” Trump said. “I said, ‘Honestly, I don’t think it looks good for you or for anybody to joke about it.'”

“You can speak about it if you want, but I don’t think you should joke about it,” Trump added.

Biden on Thursday stumbled and fell on stage after congratulating Air Force graduates for roughly two hours. The White House said he was fine after the fall. Biden himself pointed to a sandbag on the stage as the cause of his fall, and later quipped to reporters that he “got sandbagged.”

At 80, Biden is the oldest individual ever to serve as president, and his age and fitness for office is likely to be a key factor as he runs for reelection in 2024.

Trump, who will turn 77 this month, faced questions about his own physical state himself in 2020 after he appeared to struggle walking down a ramp after delivering a commencement address at West Point.

“Well, I hope he wasn’t hurt,” Trump said earlier Thursday, after a member of the crowd informed him of the president’s fall. “You gotta be careful about that because you don’t want that, even if you have to tiptoe down the ramp.”