Photo: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
The president of the United States Joe Biden is ready to close out 2022 and welcome 2023 away from the frigid weather that plagues a large part of the country’s states. The head of state and his wife flew this Tuesday to the paradisiacal Virgin Islands where they hope to enjoy warmer weather and where they will celebrate the New Year.
The White House announced Monday night that the president and his wife, first lady Jill Biden, they would leave Washington on Tuesday for St. Croix, one of the three islands that make up the United States territory in the Caribbean. St. John and St. Thomas are the other two islands.
Biden’s escape to the Virgin Islands is not newHe has been doing it since he was vice president from 2009 to 2017.
Biden spent the holidays at his Delaware home in 2020 and 2021, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This week’s visit to St. Croix will be his first as president to the US Virgin Islands.
“We feel tremendously honored”Del. Stacey Plaskett, a Democrat representing the Virgin Islands in Congress, said in a phone interview Tuesday, adding “we’ve missed him for the last two years.”
Biden and his wife enjoy spending the week between Christmas and New Years in warmer weather, and Jill Biden likes the beach, her aides said. Some family members were expected to join them.
Biden’s departure to the beach occurs after he approved Monday night (12.26.2022) the emergency declaration for the state of new yorkthe most affected by the storm elliottto facilitate the federal aid necessary to alleviate its effects and care for the people affected.
Biden is scheduled to return to Washington on January 2.