President Joe Biden appeared to waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on Tuesday when he took Air Force One for a one-hour trip to Delaware.
What happened?
Biden traveled to Delaware late Tuesday, arriving in his home state at 6:40 p.m. By 7:55 p.m., he was back on Air Force One en route to Washington, D.C.
So why the brief, previously unannounced trip?
It turns out that Biden used Air Force One and two motorcades, according to the New York Post, for the 1 hour and 15 minute trip so that he could vote in Delaware’s primary election. Even more odd is the fact that Biden took the trip when there was only one contested Democratic primary, for state auditor.
While in Delaware, he also stopped at his home for eight minutes.
It’s unclear why Biden and first lady Jill Biden waited until Tuesday to vote. After all, they could have requested absentee ballots, or they could have voted early when they were in Delaware just last weekend.
Air Force One is notoriously expensive to operate, costing roughly $177,000 per hour in fiscal year 2021.
What did the WH say?
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended Biden’s expensive voting excursion on Wednesday, claiming voting on Tuesday worked best for his schedule.
“Every American, as you know, has a sacred and constitutional right to vote. The president exercised that right, alongside other Delawareans, last night,” she told reporters.
“Look, as you know, the president has a very heavy schedule. He’s the president of the United States. It worked out best for him to vote on Tuesday,” she added. “He thought it was important to exercise his constitutional right to vote, as I just mentioned, and set an example by showing the importance of voting.
Jean-Pierre, however, failed to explain why Biden did not vote when he was in Delaware on Friday and Saturday when polls were open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. for early voting. Biden also refused to explain why he didn’t vote when in Delaware over the weekend.