President Biden's domestic legislative agenda is on the ropes, his economic policies delivered the weakest job report of 2021, another group of migrants are starting to illegally cross into the United States in Yuma, Arizona, and the president is heading to Delaware for the weekend. Again.
#Biden has 6 things on his public sched Fri., per WH, incl.:
— Devon Heinen (@DevonHeinen) October 8, 2021
• Speech re: Sept. #JobsReport at 11:30a EDT
• Speech re: protecting nat'l monuments & land-&-water restoration & conservation at 1:45p
• Leaving WH for Wilmington, Del., at 6:15p
Presser: WH Press Sec at 2:30p pic.twitter.com/UFJaJom0GR
Americans and Afghan allies are still stranded in Afghanistan and China continues to escalate its aggression against Taiwan, but there's apparently nothing that the president finds pressing enough to keep him near the Oval Office when there's a weekend at home in Delaware at stake.
Biden's Friday schedule currently has him addressing the weakest jobs report of 2021 then speaking about protecting national monuments before departing the White House at 6:15 p.m. to arrive in Wilmington around 7:10 p.m.
It's a familiar routine for Biden at this point, having spent more weekends at home in Delaware than he has at the White House thus far in his presidency. When 15,000 illegal immigrants were setting up a "Bidenville" under the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas, Biden was on a bike ride in Delaware. When Afghanistan was falling to the Taliban, he was alone at Camp David.
Predictably, Biden is heading to Delaware for the 24th time. And, no, he still hasn’t been to the border! pic.twitter.com/BFMaQGAeSK
— Jake Schneider (@jacobkschneider) October 8, 2021
Just a few months into his presidency, Biden's habit of holing up outside of the nation's capital rather than staying at the White House raised eyebrows, and not just among conservatives. NPR reported of Biden's Delaware desires in August that he "spent twice as many weekends at his home there as in the White House," meaning he spent fewer weekends in D.C. than his two immediate predecessors.
Around the same time, Jen Psaki admitted that Biden's meetings taking place in Delaware are not logged as those at the White House are. As The New York Post pointed out, Biden campaigned on a promise to govern in a way that would "restore transparency and trust in government," yet there's now zero transparency in who pays the president a visit during his many weekends spent in private residences.
Before this weekend, trackers reported that as of the first weekend of October, Biden has spent 18 weekends in Delaware, 10 at Camp David, just 8 at the White House, and one abroad while attending the G7 summit in England.
By my count, this is Biden’s 23rd trip to DE as pres., totaling all or part of 62 days.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) October 2, 2021
His weekend scoreboard:
-18 weekends at home in DE (Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach)
-10 weekends at Camp David
-8 weekends at the WH
-1 overseas/Cornwall, England G7
The president's hide-and-wait strategy is one he perfected while running for president, riding out any news cycle in his basement. And while that may have worked by limiting the number of public gaffes he committed, it doesn't seem to work now that he's supposed to be governing.