Video of Joe Biden 'Sniffing' Baby Goes Viral

An interaction between President Joe Biden and a baby at Monday's annual Easter Egg Roll is sparking jokes and criticism from conservatives on social media.

Biden and First Lady Jill Biden appeared at the yearly Easter celebration at the White House on Monday, which drew a crowd of an estimated 40,000 attendees following days' worth of criticism on behalf of conservatives, who ridiculed the Biden administration for promoting the Trans Day of Visibility on the same day as Easter.

The annual Trans Day of Visibility, observed to promote awareness for the transgender community, has taken place on March 31 since 2009.

A video posted on social media on Monday from the egg roll shows Biden leaning in towards a baby and sharing brief words into the child's right ear as the apparent father looks on. According to some critics, it appears that Biden is smelling the child.

Newsweek reached out to the Biden campaign via email for comment.

"Biden leans in for the sniff," RNC Research, which is run by the Republican National Committee, wrote on its account on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.

Steven Cheung, the campaign spokesperson for Biden's likely 2024 election opponent, former President Donald Trump, wrote on X: "The Bidens sure do like sniffing things."

"Biden is sniffing children on the White House lawn again," wrote conservative Benny Johnson.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), which works to elect Republicans to the House of Representatives, wrote: "Extreme House Democrats want four more years of this..."

"Why did Joe Biden just sniff a random baby?" asked another conservative X user, @ProudElephantUS.

Biden's been critiqued in the past for similar "sniffing" incidents.

Prior to becoming the Democratic Party's presidential nominee in 2020, Biden was accused by former Nevada state Assemblywoman Lucy Flores of smelling her hair and kissing the back of her head.

A former Democratic aide, Amy Lappos, claimed that Biden once pulled her closer to him so the pair could rub noses.

Last July, while wrapping up a four-day NATO trip, Biden was leaving Helsinki, Finland, when he jokingly pretended to bite a young child held by her mother. Biden was labeled by some as a "creep" and said the child, who pulled away from the president, was "horrified."

Incidents have been mocked on television programs like Saturday Night Live, where actor Jason Sudeikis played Biden in October 2021 and made mentions of the president getting a "whiff" of another.