Unearthed emails reveal White House nixed Biden visiting ship because of ‘how many steps were involved’
- August 12, 2025
Andrew Mark Miller, Fox News
Unearthed emails as part of a FOIA request show Biden administration agencies scrapping a plan to visit a vessel at an event because it would have required then-President Joe Biden to take too many steps.
Records show, as part of a FOIA request by Protect the Public’s Trust obtained by Fox News Digital, that Biden was set to visit a National Security Multi-Mission Vessel (NSMV) while touring a Philadelphia shipyard in July 2023.
However, according to the emails, that visit to the vessel was scrapped because of “how many steps were involved to get on the ship.”
The emails show that the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) was engaged in a major project at the Philadelphia shipyard at the time that Biden was planning to visit to tout offshore wind and clean energy jobs.
The decision to skip visiting the vessel in the shipyard came a little more than a month after Biden faced questions over his mental and physical sharpness when he stumbled and fell on stage at an Air Force Academy graduation ceremony in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on June 1, 2023.
The White House said at the time that the president tripped over a sandbag and that he was not injured by the fall.
Around the same time, White House officials were rejecting concerns from conservatives about Biden’s health and insisting he was able to perform his duties at a high level.
“There’s an awful lot wrong here, beginning with the White House planning a presidential visit to one of the most important shipyards in the nation without bothering to give a heads-up to the Department of Transportation, which has major ongoing projects there,” Protect the Public’s Trust Director Michael Chamberlain told Fox News Digital.
“That’s amateurish. Second and far more critical, the president’s staff was proscribing events he couldn’t physically handle more than a year before he dropped out of the re-election race, all while lambasting anyone who claimed he wasn’t fit enough to complete the Ironman Competition. I realize there’s an elevator down to the White House Situation Room, but most voters would like to think they’re pulling the lever for a president who could take the stairs in an emergency.”