Reading the autocue has never looked so hard: Joe Biden emerges from 6 DAYS in hiding with stumbling video stream

Joe Biden has reemerged from an almost week-long disappearance to post a video on Twitter addressing the Trump administration's handling of the Covid-19 crisis, but his return has been greeted with mockery and concern.

Biden sounded tired and slow as he spoke while standing in front of what appeared to be a green screen with a set of bookshelves digitally imposed behind him.

He criticized US President Donald Trump and Senate leader Mitch McConnell for “trying to put a corporate bailout ahead of millions of families” and urged “aggressive measures” to help small US businesses, workers and communities suffering during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Biden had reportedly addressed his donors for a “virtual fundraiser” on Sunday, though no footage of that event has found its way online. Prior to that, the former VP and candidate for president had not appeared in public since Tuesday, amidst the rapidly progressing national coronavirus crisis. The disappearance, at such an unusual time, prompted many to question whether he had suffered health problems himself.

At one stage, his campaign excused his absence from public view by suggesting it was difficult to record videos in his home because there “aren't particularly high ceilings, which can make lighting a challenge,” according to ABC News.

So it was little wonder that most were not impressed with his comeback video on Monday, which immediately raised eyebrows – and produced plenty of jokes –  on social media.

“This is the lighting we had to wait a week for and clearly his labored manner of speaking had nothing to do with it,” one Twitter user wrote.

“If you think this is bad imagine how many takes they had to do just to get to this point,” another said.

Some joked that the video could be a "deep fake" or a "hologram" of the Democratic frontrunner, while others suggested that he should hold up a copy of the day's newspaper next time he does a video, so people can be sure it hasn't been pre-recorded.

A few people were also concerned that the former VP appeared to be “slurring” some of his words in the video.

Aside from his delivery, some noted that while Biden criticized Trump’s response to the crisis and said “aggressive measures” should be taken to help workers, he didn’t actually offer any “concrete policy proposals” of his own in the clip.

Ultimately, the video did little to quell concerns over Biden’s health and wellbeing – and the hashtag #WhereIsJoe looks set to live on for another while.

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