Taking It Easy: President Joe Biden Spent a Quarter of His Final Year Vacationing Or Working Remote as 82-Year-Old's Time in the White House Quickly Winds Down
Dec. 30 2024, Published 7:45 p.m. ET
Joe Biden has made sure not to deal with too much stress during the final year of his presidency before he hands over the reigns to Donald Trump.
The 82-year-old spent almost a quarter of his final year in office in numerous vacation spots or even working remotely, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
According to a review of White House pool reports, Biden spent 24% of his final presidential year taking a load off.
Biden spent 89 full and partial days out of the White House this year, not counting days he was taking foreign trips for official business, time that increased as soon as he dropped out of the presidential race and handed things over to Vice President Kamala Harris.
The politician spent a total of 46 full or partial days in various getaway locations including Camp David, Delaware, Nantucket, California, and St. Croix.
The report does not include the Camp David trip Biden took to prepare for the first presidential debate against Trump – which ended up being a total disaster and kicked off the idea of having Harris take over.
The vacation tally also does not count Biden's trip to Delaware to recover from COVID. At the time the president was not seen for a week before he eventually dropped out of the race.
Despite the numbers, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates defended Biden's time off.
He said: "... Commanders-in chief have been able to perform the full range of their duties from anywhere in the world for decades. For example, President Biden was in Delaware when he secured the international deal that brought wrongfully detained Americans like Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan home."
Bates added Biden works “around the clock” and has taken “few” vacation days.
All this comes as the Democrat was criticized for his final decisions as president, including commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row – a move that sent Trump raging.
He cried on Truth Social: "[T]o the 37 most violent criminals, who killed, raped, and plundered like virtually no one before them, but were just given, incredibly, a pardon by Sleepy Joe Biden.
"I refuse to wish a Merry Christmas to those lucky ‘souls’ but, instead, will say, GO TO HELL!"
Before he commuted the sentences of death row inmates, Biden was also mocked for granting clemency to 1,500 individuals earlier this month.
Biden said at the time: "As President, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses."
According to multiple anonymous sources despite on his way out of the White House, Biden and some of his closest aides have boasted about how he should've stayed in the race and how he could've won a second term.
However, insiders claimed: "Aides say the president has been careful not to place blame on Harris or her campaign."
While she ran a very expensive campaign, including paying more than double the expected amount to Oprah Winfrey's company for a live-streamed event, Harris was defeated by Trump.