[Capt. Tom]

He was falling asleep. The staff acted to avoid any chance of him falling asleep or falling over getting seen on TV. The raised voices were to wake him up and drown out anything he said in case he sounded confused.

That's exactly what I saw. That certainly woke Biden up, and his startled comments were drowned out by the confusion. -Tom

[Widget Jr]

It would not surpirse me if the news were all told in advance what the signal was to get out and make noise while leaving.

[frank ballenger]

probably Biden fell asleep and they woke him....

What was the Gary Cooper movie (Friendly Persuasion?) where the old man in church was snoring and suddenly woke up and shouted Amen!. Funny if Joe does that.

But Joe would suddenly shout “All hail Chairman Xi.”