Several hours after his grandson Beau stole the show upon departure by imitating the president by donning a similar blue mini-me suit and waving at the audience, President Joe Biden and his family landed in South Carolina on Wednesday for a week-long vacation on Kiawah Island.
Biden and Jill left the White House in a motorcade for Joint Base Andrews outside of the capital, where his son Hunter Biden, daughter-in-law Melissa Cohen, and grandson Beau met them on Air Force One.
The president saluted on the steps of the Air Force One while Baby Beau, dressed in a little suit, held his grandfather’s hand and waved to a military greeter.
After landing at Joint Base Charleston, the family was taken to a luxury residence in a gated neighbourhood next to a golf club on Kiawah Island.
Requests for information on Biden’s vacation plans, activities, or when he would be returning to Washington were unanswered by the White House.
According to a White House representative, the president will stay at a friend’s house on the island that the family has previously visited.
The president was finally released from isolation and reunited with his wife after almost three weeks apart owing to his illness after testing negative for COVID this past weekend.
Although his doctor has given Biden the all-clear to fly, he is still experiencing post-COVID cough.
His family has previously visited the Kiawah numerous times, including four times when he served as vice president, but this is his first trip there since becoming president.
While Biden is in South Carolina, the House is scheduled to vote on a package including many of his aims, including the largest investment ever made in the battle against climate change, totaling $369 billion over a ten-year period.
The proposal would limit Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs to $2,000 and prolong subsidies from the coronavirus epidemic to assist an estimated 13 million Americans afford health insurance.
When asked when Biden would sign the legislation, the White House dodged the question, stating its attention was on making sure the House passed the legislation.
The tumultuous drawdown of American soldiers from Afghanistan, a COVID-19 case spike, and the legislative schedule in Washington all interfered with Biden’s 2021 vacation plans.
Summer vacations are customary for presidents. George W. Bush often worked in the scorching August heat on his central Texas ranch clearing vegetation.
On the Martha’s Vineyard island in Massachusetts, Barack Obama practised his golf swing.
Spending time at his residence on his exclusive golf course in central New Jersey was Donald Trump.
The White House has previously highlighted that the president is never fully free from the duties of his position and that, regardless of his location, he would continue to interact with advisers and get his daily national security briefing.
Additionally, presidents have sometimes been forced to make judgments that would go down in history while on vacation, such as Bush’s in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans.
In reaction to the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Bill Clinton authorised airstrikes against al-Qaida militants from Martha’s Vineyard.
And from his family’s seaside estate in Kennebunkport, Maine, President George H.W. Bush, the father of Bush, coordinated the American response to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
The Bidens will stay on the private island for an unknown amount of time, according to the White House, although FAA aviation restrictions remain in effect until Tuesday.
These limitations are customary practise whenever a president visits a location.
Numerous private properties can be found on the island, including those occupied by former Republican governor Nikki Haley, Olympic gold winner Tara Lipinski in figure skating, and NBA star Ray Allen.
The Inflation Reduction Act, which the Senate approved this weekend, will be put to a vote in the House while Biden is away.
The plan replaced Biden’s Build Back Better as the Democrats’ main legislative initiative when it received insufficient Democratic support.
Funding for initiatives addressing climate change and health is included in the Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden supports.
Democrats also contend that it would lessen the nation’s record-high inflation, which some believe may make voters angry with the president’s party in the November election.
The PACT Act was enacted by Biden before to his vacation.
The law improves healthcare for veterans of the armed forces who were exposed to poisonous burn pits.
Biden has previously said that he thinks Beau’s exposure to burn pits while serving in Iraq contributed to the illness that ultimately claimed his life in 2015.
For his vacations, the president usually travels to Delaware, where he stays at his property in Wilmington or his beach house in Rehoboth.
He visited each of those residences for a portion of August last year.
However, the Bidens are familiar with Kiawah.
When Biden was vice president, they had already visited the island in 2009, 2013, 2014, and 2015.
And President Biden’s most recent trip to the state was in December, when he accepted Rep. Jim Clyburn’s offer to speak at South Carolina State University’s commencement.
Kiawah, a 15 square mile island, is 25 miles from Charleston and boasts a beachfront golf resort. It is regarded as one of the top golfing locations on the East Coast.
The PGA staged its tournament at Kiawah Island’s The Ocean Course in May 2021.
Biden plays golf, although he often only plays at his Wilmington country club.
Biden played 15 games of golf during his first 18 months in office, according to Mark Knoller, a former White House reporter for CBS News who keeps track of presidential statistics.