President Biden Takes Marine One to Wilmington After Press Complains About Trips Home Aboard Airplane
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President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden flew home to Delaware aboard Marine One after his previous trips aboard Air Force One were repeatedly criticized by reporters, who claimed traveling by plane during the pandemic set a bad example.
The Associated Press‘ Darlene Superville noted the detail in a broader story about Biden’s weekend travel to his home state, which she contrasted with former President Donald Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago:
Trump took the more familiar version of Air Force One, a modified 747, on the two-hour-plus flight to the commercial airport in West Palm Beach, Florida. Biden has flown a smaller version of the aircraft for the roughly half-hour flight to the Delaware Air National Guard Base. He made this weekend’s trip on the Marine One presidential helicopter.
Trump’s Florida home is on the water, which required the addition of Coast Guard security patrols.
Biden goes back to his longtime home near Wilmington, where he lived as a senator before being elected vice president in 2008 and where he returned after his time in that office was up.
The change comes after two different briefing room exchanges in which reporters suggested that the president was flouting CDC guidelines and should scale back his travel home, but were reminded by Press Secretary Jen Psaki that travel aboard Air Force One does not violate CDC guidelines, and reminded reporters that the President “lives in Wilmington; it’s his home. That’s where he’s lived for many, many years. And as you know, as any President of the United States does, he takes a private airplane called Air Force One to travel there. That is, of course, a unique — unique from most Americans, but I think most Americans would also see that as a unique circumstance.”
Superville also noted that President Biden attends church in Wilmington, and that “the president’s first wife, Neilia, and their baby daughter, Naomi, who were killed in a 1972 car accident, and their son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015 at age 46, are buried in a cemetery at the church where Biden attends services.”
There are many factors that affect the method of presidential travel, including weather, security, and the disruption to others, but Marine One does offer the clear benefit of saving taxpayer money. The helicopters used for presidential travel cost a fraction of what Air Force One costs to operate.
