Wednesday, President Joe Biden and his family arrived in South Carolina for a week-long vacation on Kiawah Island, just hours after Beau Biden, the president’s grandson, made headlines by dressing like him in a blue mini-me suit and waving to the audience as they left the White House.
Biden and first wife Jill Biden took a motorcade from the White House to Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington, D.C., where they were met by their son Hunter Biden, daughter-in-law Melissa Cohen, and grandson Beau, who all boarded Air Force One with them.
As the president saluted on the steps of Air Force One, Baby Beau, dressed in a miniature suit, held to his grandfather’s hand and waved to a military greeter.
After landing at Joint Base Charleston, the family was driven to their home in a gated enclave on Kiawah Island, which is adjacent to a golf course.
The White House did not respond to queries for information about Vice President Biden’s vacation itinerary, activities, or anticipated return date. An official from the White House said that the president and his family will be staying at the home of a friend on the island.
After nearly three weeks apart because of his infection, the president and his wife are finally reunited and he is cleared to travel after testing negative for COVID over the weekend.
Biden’s doctor has given him the green light to go, but he’s still coughing up post-COVID dust.
This is the Bidens’ first trip to Kiawah since he was elected president; they visited four times while he was vice president.
The House is scheduled to vote on a package that includes many of Biden’s aims while he is in South Carolina. This bill would make the largest investment in history to combat climate change, totaling around $369 billion over the course of a decade. The bill would extend subsidies offered during the coronavirus pandemic, helping an estimated 13 million Americans pay for health care insurance, and set a maximum out-of-pocket cost for prescription drugs for Medicare users at $2,000.
The White House has been evasive about when Vice President Biden plans to sign the bill, stating instead that it is concentrating on ensuring the law passes the House.
Washington’s legislative calendar, an increase in COVID-19 cases, and the disorganized evacuation of U.S. forces from Afghanistan all messed with Biden’s vacation plans for 2021.
The president always takes a vacation during the summer. In the August heat of his central Texas ranch, George W. Bush would regularly spend time clearing vegetation. President Obama visited Martha’s Vineyard, a Massachusetts island, to hone his golf skills. Donald Trump stayed at his central New Jersey golf clubhouse.
The president will continue to communicate with his staff and receive his daily national security briefing wherever he may be, as has been previously stressed by the White House.
Some presidents, like Bush in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, have had to make decisions that will define their legacies while on vacation. In reaction to the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Bill Clinton ordered airstrikes from Martha’s Vineyard against al-Qaida militants.
And Bush’s dad, President George H.W. Bush, plotted out America’s retaliation for Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait from the comfort of his beachside house in Kennebunkport, Maine.