President Joe Biden suddenly made the Sign of the Cross, a Catholic sacramental gesture, on Wednesday during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
During the one-on-one conversation, Biden, 80, made the Sign of the Cross as Netanyahu started speaking.
“Joe, we’ve been friends for, I’ve checked it, over 40 years,” Netanyahu said, at which point Biden made the Sign of the Cross.
It is unclear why Biden made the religious gesture.
Officials and the public alike have expressed concerns over Biden’s age and mental acuity as the number of gaffes continues to rise.
Earlier this week, Biden stumbled through his speech at the United Nations General Assembly and asserted the United States and China should team up on “accelerating the climate crisis.”
“We stand ready to work together with China on issues where progress hinges on our common efforts,” Biden said. “Nowhere is that more critical than accelerating the climate crisis.”
Biden attempted to correct himself, adding, “Than, than the accelerating climate crisis.”
In June, Biden fell to the ground while on stage at the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation, video of the moment shows.
Multiple people ran to the president’s aid and helped him up off the ground, at which point Biden appeared to point to the area that caused him to trip.
The president was also recently filmed stumbling up the stairs to Air Force One for the second time in two weeks and for at least the fifth time since he took office.
While boarding the presidential transport plane at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, Biden tripped about halfway up the stairs. Footage of the moment was posted on Twitter.
Additionally, Biden had a lesion removed from his chest earlier this year that was confirmed to have been cancerous, though his doctor said no further treatment was required.
Biden’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, said test results showed the lesion to be a common form of skin cancer called a basal cell carcinoma, the Associated Press reported. O’Connor said that “all cancerous tissue was successfully removed” during the president’s periodic physical examination on Feb. 16.
The lesion was first revealed in O’Connor’s summary of the physical, where he wrote that a “small lesion” had been “excised” and sent for a biopsy.
O’Connor, the removal site on Biden’s chest has “healed nicely,” AP reported.
