Joe Biden escapes from Washington’s growing documents scandal and plunging popularity on a day-trip to Northern California to see storm damage for himself
- Biden is making a day trip to California to see storm damage on Thursday
- It means he can get away from the scandal over his handling of classified files
- On Wednesday, he made no public appearances at all at the White House
President Joe Biden flies to California’s central coast on Thursday to see for himself areas that have been devastated by extreme weather.
Although it is billed as a chance to meet with first responders and survey recovery efforts, it offers a chance to escape Washington, where his administration is under intense fire for its handling of a document scandal.
On Thursday it emerged that his popularity had plunged to 40 percent, close to the lowest of his presidency.
Karine Jean-Pierre, his press secretary, has been bombarded for days with questions about who knew what and when after government documents were found first at a private office used by the president and then at his Delaware home.
President Joe Biden has faced a barrage of questions about the document scandal at the White House. On Thursday, he escapes Washington on a whistlestop visit to California
Workers clear the remains of a tree after it crashed down at a shopping center in Los Angeles, California, this week. The state has been hit with an ongoing series of what meteorologists call atmospheric rivers, bringing heavy rain, wind and widespread flooding
And Biden has had to ignore shouted questions on the issue at every White House recent White House.
On Wednesday, he made no public appearances. And on Thursday, he was due to be accompanied by a small, travelling press pool at events that were not open to the general press.
He arrives in an area that has been deluged with rain and snow since late December, toppling trees, setting off landslides and cutting power to thousands of homes.
Weeks of extreme weather meant that even a relatively mild system on Monday was enough to trigger fresh flooding and mudslide warnings because the state remains saturated.
In all, the state was hit by nine consecutive rainstorms since Dec. 26, killing at least 20 people.
Such was their intensity, that meteorologists call them ‘atmospheric rivers.
Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday that Deanne Criswell, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will accompany the president to California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom would join the tour.
How the scandal of government documents unfolded since classified records were found in Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center on November 2
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