KJP Won’t Say If Biden Still Plans Beach Vacation This Weekend Amid Hurricane Idalia

On August 30, 2023, as Hurricane Idalia was battering the Florida coast, a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre whether President Biden would remain in Washington for the weekend given the unfolding disaster. The reporter noted that the published schedule had Biden leaving Friday for his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Jean-Pierre’s response was notable for what she refused to say: rather than confirming Biden would cancel his vacation plans, she stated only that she did not “have any changes or any additions to the President’s travel,” then pivoted to lengthy assurances about the president’s commitment to the hurricane response.

The exchange highlighted the Biden administration’s recurring struggle to reconcile the president’s frequent vacations with the optics of national emergencies and natural disasters.

The Exchange

The reporter’s question was straightforward: “Will the president stay in Washington this weekend given what’s going on in Florida? We don’t know the extent of damage. The week ahead had him leaving on Friday to go home to Rehoboth for the weekend.”

Jean-Pierre’s response was a carefully constructed non-answer: “I don’t have any changes or any additions to the president’s travel. You’re going to hear from the president directly who is going to speak about the continued efforts to prepare and respond to Hurricane Idalia. Following those remarks, as you all know, he’s going to be meeting with his Cabinet and agency officials to continue our coordination of federal response.”

She then filled the remaining space with reassurances: “He will always continue to be engaged directly with local elected officials. You hear us say this often. You heard it from the administrator; you’ve heard this from us: We, this president is committed to being there for the community, for the people who are certainly have been impacted by this hurricane, you know, today, tomorrow, as long as it takes to help them all get back on their feet. So, that will not change, obviously.”

The response was a textbook example of answering the question you wish you had been asked rather than the one that was actually posed. The reporter asked a simple yes-or-no question: will Biden stay or go? Jean-Pierre’s lengthy response about commitment and engagement answered neither yes nor no, strongly suggesting that the beach vacation was still on the schedule.

Biden’s Vacation Problem

By August 2023, Biden’s vacation schedule had become a persistent political liability. According to tracking by multiple news organizations, Biden had spent approximately 40 percent of his presidency at one of his personal properties, primarily his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and his home in Wilmington, Delaware.

The frequency and timing of these trips drew criticism not because presidents do not deserve rest, but because of the pattern of Biden departing for leisure during moments of national crisis or heightened public concern. The Maui wildfires had been the most prominent example: Biden was vacationing in Delaware when the fires broke out and gave his “no comment” response while on the beach, then proceeded to a luxury villa in Lake Tahoe before eventually visiting the disaster site nearly two weeks later.

Hurricane Idalia presented the same optics problem. A major hurricane was making landfall in Florida, causing significant destruction, and the president’s scheduled response was to head to the beach for the weekend. The fact that Jean-Pierre could not simply say Biden would cancel the trip suggested that the White House was either unwilling to commit to staying in Washington or was genuinely planning to proceed with the vacation despite the circumstances.

Hurricane Idalia

Hurricane Idalia made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane near Keaton Beach, Florida on the morning of August 30, 2023. It was the strongest hurricane to hit Florida’s Big Bend region in over 125 years, with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph at landfall.

The storm caused significant damage along Florida’s Gulf Coast, producing dangerous storm surge, widespread flooding, and destructive winds. Communities in the Cedar Key area experienced some of the worst storm surge flooding, with water levels reaching over seven feet above normal in some areas. The storm also caused significant damage in Georgia and the Carolinas as it tracked northeast.

While the death toll from Idalia was relatively low compared to the Maui wildfires, the storm caused billions of dollars in property damage and left hundreds of thousands of residents without power. The hurricane was the latest in a series of natural disasters that had tested the Biden administration’s response capabilities, following the Maui wildfires that were still an ongoing crisis at the time.

The “As Long as It Takes” Promise

Jean-Pierre’s invocation of the phrase “as long as it takes” was ironic given the context. The Biden administration had famously used the phrase “as long as it takes” in reference to supporting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, a commitment that involved tens of billions of dollars in ongoing military and economic aid.

Critics were quick to note the disparity between the administration’s “as long as it takes” commitment to a foreign conflict and its response to domestic disasters. Maui wildfire victims had received $700 one-time payments. Hurricane victims were assured the president was “committed” while his travel schedule apparently remained unchanged. The perception that the administration was more attentive and generous toward international priorities than toward Americans facing natural disasters at home was a recurring theme throughout Biden’s presidency.

The Pattern of Crisis Vacations

The Hurricane Idalia beach vacation question was part of a broader pattern that defined Biden’s approach to crises throughout his presidency.

During the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, Biden was at Camp David and was photographed alone in a conference room receiving briefings, an image that projected isolation rather than decisive leadership. During the supply chain crisis of late 2021, Biden spent multiple weekends at his Delaware properties while container ships backed up at American ports. During the baby formula shortage of 2022, Biden was criticized for a slow response while maintaining his regular travel schedule.

The pattern suggested that the Biden White House viewed presidential leisure time as non-negotiable, regardless of external circumstances. While every president takes vacations and every president can work from locations outside the White House, the optics of heading to the beach while citizens were dealing with hurricanes and wildfires created a persistent image of disengagement.

Additional Context

Biden did ultimately travel to Rehoboth Beach that weekend, confirming what Jean-Pierre’s non-answer had strongly implied. The decision drew additional criticism, though the White House maintained that the president could fulfill his duties from any location and was in constant contact with emergency response officials.

The Hurricane Idalia response was generally viewed as more competent than the Maui wildfire response, in part because FEMA had more advance warning and the hurricane followed a more predictable pattern than the sudden wildfire outbreak. However, the optics of the president vacationing during the disaster response undercut the administration’s messaging about commitment and urgency.

The exchange also illustrated the broader challenge facing Jean-Pierre at the podium. She was repeatedly tasked with defending decisions and schedules that were difficult to defend on their merits, forcing her into evasive non-answers and lengthy digressions that drew more attention to the very problems she was trying to deflect.

Key Takeaways

• Karine Jean-Pierre refused to confirm whether Biden would cancel his planned beach vacation at Rehoboth Beach amid Hurricane Idalia’s landfall in Florida, saying only that she had “no changes or additions” to the president’s travel.
• The non-answer strongly implied Biden would proceed with the vacation, which he ultimately did, heading to Rehoboth Beach that weekend despite the ongoing hurricane response.
• The exchange came less than three weeks after Biden had been criticized for vacationing during the Maui wildfire crisis, when he offered “no comment” on the death toll while at the beach.
• Jean-Pierre filled her response with assurances about Biden’s commitment to disaster response while carefully avoiding the specific question of whether he would stay in Washington.
• Biden had spent approximately 40 percent of his presidency at personal properties by this point, making his vacation schedule a persistent political liability, particularly during national emergencies.