President Joe Biden was hurriedly directed to his armored SUV by Secret Service agents after he witnessed a vehicle collide with his motorcade in Delaware.
As the president exited the building in Wilmington on Sunday, cameras caught the moment he froze, reacting with a “wow” as an impact could be heard down the street.
He had just responded to a reporter’s shouted question about his polling numbers when the crash could be heard. Biden looked toward the sound which was reportedly caused by a car slamming into the side of “a black U.S. Secret Service SUV that was shielding the motorcade,” according to Daily Mail.
“The Secret Service appeared equally as stunned as the man they were protecting, seeming slow off the mark, taking almost ten seconds to bundle the nation’s leader into the safety of his vehicle,” the outlet noted.
Q: Why are you losing in the polls?
BIDEN: “You’re reading the wrong polls”
*crash* pic.twitter.com/VQKeLpZrYK
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 18, 2023
The president and first lady Jill Biden had been eating with staffers at campaign headquarters prior to the incident. Secret Service surrounded the silver sedan that crashed into the motorcade
Secret Service spokesperson Steve Kopek noted that the crash was not intentional.
“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,” Kopek said in a statement to CNN and directed any other questions to the Wilmington Police Department.
🚨#BREAKING: Clearer footage of the Presidential motorcade incident shows the moment when Joe Biden was walking out of his campaign headquarters and about 9 seconds into the footage, you can hear the crash as a car collides with his motorcade. The driver of the car is reportedly… pic.twitter.com/LZnPoBkTtM
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) December 18, 2023
The driver was reportedly surrounded by agents and told to put his hands up. Reporters and photographers on the scene captured the tense moments and speculated about what had happened.
Police demanded that the driver open the door. It wasn’t clear whether the driver was responding. pic.twitter.com/4KqmJP7qNy
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) December 18, 2023
Local officers were “investigating the motor vehicle collision,” Wilmington Police Department spokesperson David Karas said in a statement. “Investigators are also working to determine if impairment was a factor.”
