President Joe Biden said that he couldn’t go to his primary home in Delaware and that a weekend trip to Rehoboth Beach cannot be considered a vacation amid concerns that the president is spending a considerable portion of his time away from work.
“I have no home to go to,” said President Biden, who lives at the White House on weekdays and spends most weekends in Delaware, where he has two homes. The U.S. Secret Service has been doing work on his longtime primary residence in Wilmington, Delaware, to make it more secure “in a good way,” he said, while stressing that he was not on vacation.
“So I have no place to go when I come to Delaware, except here, right now,” he said, speaking of his other home in Rehoboth Beach. “I’m only here for one day.”
He first told reporters about the security upgrades to his Wilmington home in April, when he went to the beach house after returning from a trip to Ireland.
Asked Sunday if he was saying that he’s homeless, President Biden said that was not the case.
“No, I’m not homeless,” he said. “I just have one home. I have a beautiful home. I’m down here for the day because I can’t go home.”
The president made the comments randomly as he approached reporters Sunday in Rehoboth Beach after going to Mass at St. Edmond Roman Catholic Church.
Presidential Vacations Amid National Woes
Critical voices have been rising against President Biden for taking extended days off for vacation purposes.Some of the harshest comments came following the disastrous Maui fires, which started on Aug. 8 and lasted through to the end of the month. According to the latest estimates, 115 people have been confirmed dead from the incident, thousands of acres of land have burned, and 385 people are missing.
Former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake also criticized the commander in chief.
“One of the most beautiful places on earth has been reduced to cinders. In Delaware: @JoeBiden can’t be bothered to care. Putting America First means getting this joker out of the White House,” Ms. Lake wrote on social media.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was questioned by the press on whether the president should be working rather than vacationing when the fires were burning in Maui.
“The [FEMA] administrator has been there for two whole days, two whole days on the ground by the president’s request to make sure that the government has what they have, the local government has what they have, the people of Maui have what they have,” replied Ms. Jean-Pierre, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “When you talk about a dozen agencies on the ground, helping and assisting … hundreds of FEMA personnel. That’s what—that’s what matters.”
When pressed again, she said that the president was “deeply concerned” and American citizens can expect to hear something from him directly.
“You could expect to hear from the president on this issue, clearly it is something that is deeply concerning to him,” she said. “You’ll hear from the president on this … certainly, he’s the president.”
After increasing criticism for not visiting Hawaii and a failure to offer appropriate comments during the start of the disaster, the president arrived in Maui on Aug. 22.
The response in Florida was relatively faster as the president reached Florida on Sept. 2. Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Aug. 30.
After the tour, the president addressed a group of onlookers and reporters.
A New Precedent
As of Aug. 27, President Biden has spent all or part of 382 of his presidency’s 957 days—nearly 40 percent—on personal overnight trips away from his primary residence, the White House, according to data calculated by the Republican National Committee and cited by the New York Post.
The vacation times outstrip earlier presidents, including Presidents George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, and Donald Trump, although calculations took into account varying time periods
“With President Biden, it’s not only that he’s absent in mind, he’s increasingly absent in body,” said Heritage Foundation Fellow Joel Griffith, according to the outlet.
There have been calls for the White House to release the visitor logs for the president’s other residences.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the White House for comment.
