President Joe Biden was finally able to disembark from Air Force One on Monday after airport personnel struggled through the heavy snowfall to bring the stair lift to the door of the presidential plane.
The truck hauling the stairs moved slowly through the thick snow with ground workers helping to push it through the accummulation.
The president was stuck on the plane for 30 minutes, waiting on the snowy tarmac while the staff worked to free him and so the tarmac could be plowed.
Biden, 79, walked down the stairs carefully, one hand on the rail and the other held up to his face to brace himself from the driving snow. Snow rained down hard, causing the president to sway as he made his way off the plane.
In an unusual move, a Secret Service agent walked right behind the president on the stairs. Usually they keep a few feet back to stay out of the camera shot. Last March, the president slipped and fell on the stairs while boarding the presidential plane.
The presidential car, known as The Beast, was waiting for him. For the snowy drive back to the White House, Biden used the SUV version of his car instead of the armoured limousine.
President Biden disembarks Air Force One in the snow
Biden held up a hand to brace himself against he heavy snowfall
Biden was stuck on the plane while airport personnel struggled to bring the stair liift through the snow so he could exit
Biden boards his SUV for the drive back to the White House
Air Force One arrived at snowy Joint Base Andrews
Air Force staff de-ice the president’s plane
Biden was one of many D.C. area residents struggling with the heavy snow fall that has blanketed the area. As much as 10 inches of snow is forecast for the District of Columbia, northern Virginia and central Maryland.
He lands in Washington D.C. as his poll numbers sit in the low 40s, his agenda is stalled on Capitol Hill, Vice President Kamala Harris is struggling to define her role and the Democratic Party faces a possible Republican landslide in the 2022 midterm elections.
Additionally COVID cases are causing a mini lockdown across the nation and inflation continues to run rampant, causing a surge in prices of food, energy and rent.
Midterm elections are almost always a referendum on the current president and most modern presidents have seen their party lose seats in Congress during them.
Biden’s low poll numbers come as he tries to coax the Senate into passing his mammoth social safety program, Build Back Better. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin essentially killed it when he announced he could not support it in its current form. He is reportedly open to negotiations, particularly if the enhanced child tax credit extension is limited.
Meanwhile, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer announced Monday the Senate will vote on filibuster rules changes to advance stalled voting legislation that President Biden is pushing.
Additionally, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, the country recorded its highest seven-day average number of cases on January 2, with 413,304 people testing positive for the virus over the past week. At the same time, however, there were 1,350 new deaths on a seven-day average. That number is far lower than the seven-day average recorded at the peak of winter in January 2021, where the US averaged around 3,300 deaths.
The president was returning from his six-day New Year’s holiday break in Wilmington, Delaware, as snow caused the federal government to close and schools to be canceled. He was originally scheduled to fly on Marine One from Delaware straight to the South Lawn of the White House. Instead of he took Air Force One to Joint Base Andrews and took the presidential motorcade back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Additionally, the White House canceled Jen Psaki’s first press briefing of the new year on Monday.
‘Because federal offices in the Washington, DC area are closed, there will be no press briefing today,’ the White House said.
Psaki’s last press briefing was December 23. She did not brief over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
Biden, meanwhile, will go ahead with his plan to meet virtually with farmers and ranchers to discuss rising meat prices.
President Joe Biden boarded Air Force One in the snow to travel from his New Year’s break in Wilmington, Del., back to Washington D.C.
Up to 10 inches of snow is forecast for Washington D.C. and the surrounding area
White House press secretary Jen Psaki canceled her press briefing for Monday; her last briefing was December 23 (above)
The decision to cancel Psaki’s press briefing came after the White House Correspondents Association decided to scale down the number of reporters in the White House press briefing room as the Omicron variant of COVID continues to cause a spike in case numbers.
Washington D.C. has become a hot spot for the disease with one of the highest case rates and hospitalization rates in the nation. In Virginia and Maryland, the highest case spikes are in the DC suburbs.
‘Given the virulence of the spread, medical experts have once again advised that it would be prudent to substantially reduce the number of people working in the cramped, poorly ventilated workspace that we share,’ WHCA president Steven Portnoy wrote in a message to correspondents on Sunday evening.
The 49 seats in the briefing room has been decreased to 14, a practice that was in place during the height of the pandemic in order to maintain social distancing and help contain the spread of COVID.
Over the past few weeks, the correspondents association has encouraged reporters to wearn N95 masks and not to come to the White House unless necesary for work. There have been a few breakthrough cases of COVID among the reporters who cover President Joe Biden.
The WHCA will review the arrangement and the latest COVID figures later this month to determine if the reduced seating needs to remain in place.
The White House imposed those severe limits on the room’s capacity for the first time on March 16, 2020, when the pandemic caused the country to shut down. Capacity in the press room was increased to 50 percent, or 24 seats, on May 24. It returned to full capacity in June 2021.
Snow falls at the White House on Monday
The White House as snow falls in Washington D.C.
Snow caused the federal government to shut down on Monday – above the White House in the snow fall
Meanwhile, the capacity of the 49-seat White House briefing room will be decreased to 14 reporters as COVID cases are on the rise (above, Psaki briefs a smaller capacity room on March 4)
The press room had its capacity reduced during Donald Trump’s administration when the country was on lockdown for COVID; it returned to normal capacity in June 2021
Meanwhile, around the Capitol region schools were closed as snow piled up around the city.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the DC area until 4pm ET.
More than half flights were delayed or cancelled at Ronald Reagan national airport, Baltimore/Washington international airport and Washington Dulles international airport.