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First Lady Jill Biden told Joe ‘we gotta go’ and tried to hurry him up on the way to Marine One while he was answering questions from reporters before flying to their Delaware beach house for their 45th wedding anniversary on Friday.
Biden was pressed on his trip to Saudi Arabia and two American ex-service members captured by Russians while fighting in Ukraine after leaving the White House ahead of his weekend trip.
Jill then stepped in and said ‘we gotta go’ and gave him a tug as he responded to shouts from reporters.
‘Americans should not be going to Ukraine now. Say it again: Americans should not be going to Ukraine now. They should not be going to Ukraine,’ the president said.
He had been asked about reports that two Americans who are former servicemembers and aiding the war effort may have been captured by Russians in wartorn Ukraine.
Biden is spending the weekend in Rehoboth Beach amid mounting questions over how he will deal with inflation and with the gun package negotiations in the Senate in limbo after Republican Senator John Cornyn stormed out of talks on Thursday night.
Traveling with the president and first lady was White House cat Willow, who flew on Marine One in her carrier, taken to the waiting helicopter by a valet.
President Joe Biden (left) and First Lady Jill Biden (right) departed the White House together Friday morning to travel to their Rehoboth Beach home as they mark their 45th wedding anniversary and celebrate the Juneteenth federal holiday
President Joe Biden (left) and First Lady Jill Biden (right) hold hands as they leave for a beach weekend in Delaware
First Lady Jill Biden (left) holds hands with President Joe Biden (right) as they depart the White House for their Rehoboth Beach house, where they will be spending their 45th wedding anniversary and the Juneteenth holiday
Willow Biden peers out of her carrier as she heads to the beach with the president and first lady
A valet carries Willow Biden in her carrier to Marine One for a ride to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on Friday
Willow looks out of the carrier as an aide carriers her to Marine One for a trip to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware
‘Americans should not be going to Ukraine now. Say it again: Americans should not be going to Ukraine now. They should not be going to Ukraine,’ the president said Friday
President Joe Biden speaks to reporters as he leaves for Rehoboth Beach, Delaware Friday
First Lady Jill Biden (left) looks back at the press as she and President Joe Biden (right) depart for Rehoboth Beach Friday
First Lady Jill Biden (left) and President Joe Biden (right) are captured arriving at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware to mark their anniversary and Juneteenth weekend
Marine One flies over the beach to land Friday in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
First cat Willow Biden arrives in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on Friday
‘I have been briefed, we don’t know where they are,’ the president said.
He also answered questions on Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Biden had spent the morning delivering an address pushing for more gun control measures at the 125th Anniversary Convention of the National Parent Teacher Association, while the president hosted an event on climate change.
The Bidens landed in Rehoboth about an hour after lifting off from the South Lawn, getting off Marine One and then being followed by an aide carrying Willow in her carrier a minute later.
The president and first lady have opted to spend most weekends in Delaware – and as the weather has warmed have spent more time at their beach house located near Cape Henlopen State Park, at the northern part of Rehoboth Beach.
Earlier this month, a plane flying in the airspace near the Biden residence prompted the Secret Service to remove the president briefly from the property.
‘A small private plane entered restricted airspace, all indications are by mistake, and precautionary measures were taken,’ an official told CNN about the incident. ‘There was not threat to the president or his family.’
That trip was to mark the first lady’s 71st birthday.
This time, the president and first lady will have a three-day weekend to enjoy thanks to Biden signing a bill last year to make Juneteenth – the official end of slavery in the United States – a federal holiday.
On Thursday the Associated Press published their interview with Biden – his first to print press since mid-February.
He said the blame for the 41-year high inflation rate could not be placed squarely on him.
Data from developed nations in the G7 and from China shows that the U.S. has been leading the way on inflation. The United Kingdom overtook the U.S. last month when their economy posted their own four-decade record hike in prices
‘Isn’t it kind of interesting? If it’s my fault, why is it the case in every other major industrial country in the world that inflation is higher? You ask yourself that? I’m not trying to be a wise guy,’ he told AP White House reporter Josh Boak.
Despite this, data from developed nations in the G7 and from China shows that the U.S. has been leading the way on inflation. The United Kingdom overtook the U.S. last month when their economy posted their own four-decade record hike in prices.
Biden pointed out that under his watch the deficit has been reduced and employment has gone up – but the Democratic president acknowledged that Americans are paying vastly more to put food on their table and fuel in their cars and that it was putting a dent in his approval rating.
‘If you want a direct barometer of what people are going to talk about at the kitchen table and the dining room table and whether things are going well, it’s the cost of food and what´s the cost of gasoline at the pump,’ he admitted.
He blamed high gas prices for the nation’s economic pessimism, saying before prices started rising, ‘Things were much more, they were much more optimistic.’
But while Biden said his message to oil companies was ‘Don’t just reward yourselves,’ he has few tools at his disposal to meaningfully bring down prices in the near term.
After more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden said the American people are ‘really, really down.’
The high inflation rate has resulted in increased prices of food, gas and housing – areas that affect most Americans
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