With a pleasant room and a sizable office, Air Force One is a sizable frequent flyer. Most US president will make an effort to avoid making two back-to-back round trips to Europe, which will take around 60 hours of ground time at home. Prez Joe Biden is doing that this week for reasons that are n’t discussed by the White House.
Biden left the US for D-Day events in France next Wednesday, June 5, spent the weekend in Paris, and then went back to his Delaware home later on Sunday. He then flew to Italy for the G7’s yearly collecting, which takes place on June 12th, early on Wednesday in Washington.
When Biden recalls those two round-trips, which totaled about a time and a half of flying, he may just recall Hunter Biden’s conviction for lying in order to get a gun permit.
But the two square visits beg the question: Why did n’t he only stay in Europe for a few weeks? He is 81, after all, and some of his advisers who are half his time were complaining about sluggish sleep processes.
Biden had pledges in Washington, which the White House claimed was the only reason for four trans-atlantic bridges that occurred in nine days. However, his public appearances, including a statement to a gun-safety group and lunchtime with vice president Kamala Harris, were unfavorable by the national standards. Although it was impossible to predict when these outings were planned, the circumstance would go to the judge, and a conviction would be rendered in the three days between the D-Day journey and the G7 meeting, Hunter Biden’s trial even loomed over the planning.
But discreetly, some aides said there were vote- season optics to be considered. There was no immediate reason to stay in Europe, and a few down time “might no glance right”, one of Biden’s experts conceded. In any case, no single wanted president’s images to appear on something his political rivals may use as a holiday in the future, at least while he is running for re-election.
The president, of program, is the best work- from- everywhere job. There are instant messaging ( a White House van, brimming with antennas, traveling in every motorcade ), and a staff of hundreds is ready to handle any emergency, whether it be sending off a thank-you note or conducting a nuclear strike in response.
The hatred for seeing presidents worldwide, save for labor, has a longer story. Although he was leader, Franklin D. Roosevelt enjoyed visiting Campobello Island in Canada. When Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin met in Potsdam, Germany to discuss what post-World War II Europe may look like, he spent more than two days there. There were time off from the discussions, but not for longer, and the nearest big city, Berlin, was a destroyed disaster. And there was a warning of the dangers of traveling abroad: Churchill’s group lost to Labour at the meeting, and he was forced to step down.
