Biden awkwardly dons Chiefs helmet during team’s White House visit in echo of Michael Dukakis gaffe
WASHINGTON — President Biden briefly wore a football helmet Friday during a celebration of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl championship — in a bizarre callback to 1988 Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis’ infamous photo-op of himself wearing a helmet atop a military tank.
“Put it on!” Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce goaded the president after head coach Andy Reid and owner Clark Hunt presented the 81-year-old president with the autographed gift on the White House lawn.
Biden, who had just delivered brief remarks congratulating the team, held the helmet above his head and attempted to do exactly that — initially smacking the headgear on his aviator sunglasses, which he had to remove as the team members roared behind him.
“Oh s–t!” a member of the team could be heard exclaiming in proximity to a White House microphone as Kelce, the boyfriend of musician Taylor Swift, and his teammates laughed.
Swift did not attend the DC event due to her ongoing European tour.
Biden approached his lectern and hunched over to say something, but technicians seemed to have already turned it off the recording device and his words were inaudible.
The president then removed the helmet before clutching it in his hand as he walked back to the White House.
As was the case with Dukakis, who donned his protective headgear to demonstrate his readiness to lead the military, Biden’s football photo-op invited immediate ridicule.
“They’re not laughing with him — they’re laughing at him,” tweeted the RNC Research rapid response account, which often generates viral online content.
Bobby LaValley, an aide to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), noted Biden’s repeated boasts to have excelled at football and the fact that he tried to wear both his sunglasses and the helmet at the same time.
“‘Biden loves to brag about his football career; you’d think he would know how to put on a helmet,” LaValley tweeted.
Others offered more upbeat appraisals of Biden’s photo op.
“Biden is a rock star,” wrote one X user. “He put on a @Chiefs helmet during the welcome to the team that won the last Super Bowl! The players shouted ‘do it do it’ and that’s how it happened.”
