President Joe Biden goes to California’s central coast on Thursday to survey the devastation caused by severe weather.
It is ostensibly an opportunity to meet with first responders and assess recovery operations, but it is actually an opportunity to escape Washington, where his administration is under tremendous scrutiny for its handling of a document scandal.
On Thursday, it was revealed that his approval rating has fallen to 40 percent, which is close to the lowest point in his presidency.
His press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, has been harassed for days with inquiries about who knew what and when, after government documents were discovered first at the president’s private office and then at his Delaware residence.
President Joe Biden has been bombarded with questions over the White House document crisis. Thursday, he leaves Washington for a quick trip in California.
This week, workers in a retail center in Los Angeles, California, remove the remnants of a tree that collapsed to the ground. A continuing sequence of what meteorologists term atmospheric rivers have brought severe rain, wind, and widespread flooding to the state.
And Biden has been forced to dismiss shouted inquiries over the matter at each of the most recent White Houses.
He made no public appearances on Wednesday. And on Thursday, he was to be followed by a tiny traveling press pool to activities that were closed to the public press.
He arrives in a region that has been inundated with rain and snow since late December, causing trees to fall, landslides, and the loss of electricity to thousands of households.
Even a relatively mild system on Monday triggered new flood and mudslide warnings because the state remained saturated after weeks of intense rainfall.
Since December 26, the state has been struck by nine consecutive rainstorms, resulting in at least 20 deaths.
Due to their strength, meteorologists referred to them as “atmospheric rivers.”
Jean-Pierre informed reporters on Wednesday that the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Deanne Criswell, will accompany the president to California, where Governor Gavin Newsom will join the visit.
How the government document issue emerged when Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center discovered classified materials on November 2.
»Joe Biden flees Washington and the expanding papers scandal«