Republicans want to know: “Where are you, Mr. President?” Here’s yet another White House watch to monitor as summer gets underway.
“Joe Biden is willing to frequently travel to the beach, yet refuses to do a press interview, visit the border, take responsibility for historic inflation, or do anything to lower gas prices. Does Biden think he will find a solution for all of these crises in the sand?” asks Emma Vaughn, spokesperson for the Republican National Committee.
Well, Mr. Biden may find some sand dollars — not acceptable U.S. currency, at least not at the moment. Meanwhile, the president’s last formal press interview took place on Feb. 10 — that’s 114 days ago as of Friday, according to the RNC’s study of the matter.
“Biden has not visited the southern border despite promising last March to go ‘at some point.’ There is no record of Biden visiting the border in his nearly 50 years in politics,” the study said.
Other GOP forces are keeping tabs on the absences. The Republican Governors Association is now tracking the trends through a website named WhereAreYouJoe.com — which indeed asks the following question: “Where are you, Mr. President?”
The organization also launched a billboard campaign in Wilmington, Delaware, featuring eight billboards that focus on Mr. Biden’s perceived reluctance to visit the southern U.S. border.
“Every day Biden spends absent from this national security failure is another day for the deadly fentanyl crisis, human trafficking, and record number of crossings to wreak havoc on the country,” said Jesse Hunt, the group’s communications director.
But wait, there’s more.
Newsweek offered a revealing count of the president’s time spent away from the White House during his first year in office, tallying those trips in a report released Jan. 20.
“Biden is known for having great fondness of his home state, which is unsurprisingly reflected by the President’s frequent stays at one of his two Delaware homes, though he has also carried out a number of trips to the Presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland,” the Newsweek report said at the time.
“Since taking office one year ago, Biden has taken 42 personal trips totaling 126 days. Of those, 73 have been spent in his Wilmington, Delaware, home — spread over a total of 25 trips; 16 days at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, over the course of five trips, and 37 days at Camp David over 12 different trips.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Biden will be on a lovely Delaware beach on Friday — which is also first lady Jill Biden’s birthday, according to the Cape Gazette, a local Delaware newspaper.