We’re in the middle of this crisis in Ukraine, and Joe Biden is off to Delaware. It doesn’t look like it’s for vacation. The line the White House is giving us is that there’s a memorial service for a family member.
Updated scheduled from @WhiteHouse, Biden will be leaving for Delaware at 5.30 pm. Earlier he spoke with Zelenskyy. #Ukraine
— Patsy Widakuswara (@pwidakuswara) February 25, 2022
White House says that Joe Biden will be going to Delaware today for the weekend
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) February 25, 2022
.@PressSec said that @POTUS is traveling to Delaware this weekend for a memorial service for a family member. She confirmed he can make a secure call from there/any location.
— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) February 25, 2022
CBS's @KathrynW5: "The President is...going to be in Delaware this weekend. Can you share what he will be doing there? Will he be traveling w/his national security team? Will he be receiving regular updates on Ukraine?"
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 25, 2022
(Psaki says he's going there for a family funeral.) pic.twitter.com/JstKH0B2VF
Biden wanted to be in Delaware for President’s Day weekend but canceled the trip when it appeared that a Russian invasion of Ukraine was imminent. Putin announced over the holiday weekend that the rebel parts of eastern Ukraine would be recognized by Moscow as independent states and that troops would be deployed on a “peacekeeping” mission. A full-blown invasion of the rest of the country followed soon afterward.
There are questions about what to do when this becomes an insurgency effort though Ukrainian forces have been putting up an aggressive fight against the Russian onslaught. What if there’s a cyber-attack against a NATO member. Should that trigger Article V? Is such an electronic attack now considered worthy of triggering Article V?
There needs to be a debate about this. Article V changes the whole ballgame here as you already know. Will that be a red line we ignore in the same way Obama ignored chemical weapons use in Syria?