President Joe Biden is on vacation again, raising familiar questions about how much time he spends away from the White House.
The first family is in the middle of a 10-day retreat at Biden’s two Delaware homes, biking and reading at the beach while avoiding public appearances. That has Republicans calling him out as the vacationer in chief.
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“Joe Biden and Jill, Ed.D., are having a relaxing day at the beach, where Biden will remain for another week,” RNC Research posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Since taking office, Biden has spent 360 days — 39% of his presidency — on vacation.”
Joe Biden and Jill, Ed.D., are having a relaxing day at the beach, where Biden will remain for another week.
Since taking office, Biden has spent 360 days — 39% of his presidency — on vacation. pic.twitter.com/3lUx8zzuwV
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 30, 2023
The Republican National Committee’s tracker holds that Biden will hit 367 full or partial days on vacation by the time he returns to the White House next week, surpassing a full year, and that pace coincides with negative numbers that hit much closer to home for voters.
“Since Biden took office, prices are higher, real wages are lower, gas prices are surging, wealth is down, debt is up,” RNC spokesman Jake Schneider said. “Biden can spend all the time in the world at the beach, but there’s a reason why he has among the worst approval ratings in modern presidential history. In addition to being corrupt and out-of-touch, he simply does not care.”
Democrats counter that many of the days included are partial days where he left on a Friday afternoon or returned on a Monday morning and that the vast majority, roughly 250 days, have been spent in Delaware. The president has spent weekends in his home state for decades dating back to his time in the Senate.
“Every time I get a chance, I go home to Delaware,” Biden said last year. “You think I’m joking. I’m not.”
The White House did not provide a statement for this story, but spokesman Andrew Bates previously said, “Presidents of the United States are constantly on the job, regardless of their location — whether they’re on a state visit overseas or just 100 miles from the White House for a short trip to Wilmington.”
Even so, Biden is on pace to set the modern record for days spent away from the White House, which he has described as being like a “gilded cage.”
Former President Donald Trump spent 381 days away from the White House while in office, and former President Barack Obama spent 328 days out over two terms.
Trump referred to his trips as “working vacations” and criticized Obama as a “habitual vacationer” who spent too much time on the golf course. He was then called out for his own jaunts to New Jersey and Florida after taking office.
Former President George W. Bush, frequently criticized for extensive stays at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, spent 1,020 days away from the White House during his two terms, while former President Bill Clinton stayed away 345 days.
Presidential historians argue that a president’s vacationing is usually only problematic when it adds to an established perception that he’s underperforming or out of touch. That could be an issue for Biden, whose approval ratings have been hovering in the low 40s for nearly two years.
A more concrete issue is that the Biden administration made much of issuing visitor logs for in-person meetings held on the White House grounds. But that rule doesn’t extend to Delaware, potentially providing an easy workaround for meetings the administration would not want the public to know about.
“I can confirm we are not going to be providing information about the comings and goings of the president’s grandchildren or people visiting him in Delaware,” then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in 2022.
Her successor, Karine Jean-Pierre, dodged a question about visitor logs this January in the wake of the classified documents scandal.
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“I would refer you to the White House Counsel’s Office on anything that’s related to the investigation, the Oversight hearing that’s happening,” Jean-Pierre said.
The president spent Monday reading on the beach and walking before riding a bike at a nearby state park. He’ll be in Rehoboth Beach until Friday, whereupon he’ll spend the weekend at his home in Wilmington.
