President Joe Biden has fled Washington DC to hole up at his Delaware mansion for an extended weekend, even as multiple crises...
President Joe Biden has fled Washington DC to hole up at his Delaware mansion for an extended weekend, even as multiple crises engulf his administration.
Biden left the White House before noon on Friday, hours before the Pentagon held a late-afternoon briefing to reveal that US forces had badly botched a drone strike in Kabul, killing 10 innocent civilians.
Meanwhile as the day unfolded, France recalled its ambassador to the US in outrage over the new AUKUS security pact, the US Food and Drug Administration rejected Biden's call for widespread COVID booster shots, and a squalid camp of 12,000 Haitian migrants continued to grow near the border in Texas.
The Secret Service dropped Biden off at his mansion in Rehoboth Beach at 1.37pm, and he plans to spend the weekend there with the First Lady, with no events on his public schedule.
Biden arrives in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on Friday for an extended weekend, even as multiple crises engulf his administration
A relative throws himself and weeps over the casket of Farzad, 12, who was one of 10 civilians killed by U.S. drone airstrikes
Haitian migrants use a dam to cross to and from the United States from Mexico on Friday in Del Rio, Texas. Thousands of Haitian migrants have assembled under and around a bridge in Del Rio
The migrants have set up a make-shift camp after successfully crossing from Mexico
DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House for comment.
White House press Secretary Jen Psaki has said in the past that presidents never fully go on vacation, noting that Biden travels with a national security aide and gets regularly briefed when he is out of the White House.
Before skipping town to get an early jump on the weekend, Biden did work from the Oval Office in the morning, convening a forum on climate change and receiving his daily intelligence briefing.
Hours after he arrived in Rehoboth Beach, the Pentagon made a stunning and embarrassing reversal, admitting that the August 29 drone strike in Kabul killed an innocent aid worker and nine of his family members, including seven children.
'Our investigation now concludes that the strike was a tragic mistake,' said the head of U.S. Central Command, Marine Corps General Frank McKenzie.
US officials had for weeks defended the botched strike, with Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark A. Milley calling it 'righteous' when pressed on civilian casualties.
Then, a dramatic and unprecedented diplomatic crisis erupted between France and the United States, with Paris recalling its top envoy in Washington DC for the first time in history.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves LeDrain announced the move to recall the ambassador Friday, saying it came in a request from French President Emmanuel Macron (pictured)
The French embassy event was supposed to commemorate the 1781 'Battle of the Capes when the French Navy delivered a decisive blow to Britain's Royal Navy in the Revolutionary War. The Battle of Virgina Capes shows British forces on the right and French on the left
France was the first country to formally recognize the United States government with a treaty in 1778, and the two republics have long had close and friendly diplomatic relations.
But the French government is furious with the new security pact between Australia, the US and the UK, which saw Canberra cancel a $90 billion submarine contract with Paris.
Instead of French conventional diesel-electric submarines, Australia will now pursue nuclear-powered subs through the trilateral security pact known as AUKUS.
Ambassador Philippe Etienne tweeted the AUKUS arrangements are 'directly affecting the vision we have of our alliances, of our partnerships and of the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe.'
'It was really a stab in the back. We built a relationship of trust with Australia, and this trust was betrayed,' said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. 'This is not done between allies.'
French officials also canceled a gala planned for Friday night in DC, intended to celebrate the French navy's aid to America's fight for independence in 1781.
In another embarrassing blow to the administration, an FDA panel announced that it would not recommend COVID booster shots for the general population, after Biden had spent weeks vowing to begin administering boosters on September 20.
President Joe Biden steps out of a motorcade vehicle Friday before boarding Air Force One on the way to spend the weekend at his home in Rehoboth Beach
An FDA panel announced that it would not recommend COVID booster shots for the general population, after Biden had spent weeks vowing to begin boosters on September 20
An FDA advisory panel voted on Friday to recommend COVID-19 vaccine booster shots only for Americans 65 and older and those at high risk of severe illness, after overwhelmingly rejecting a call for broader approval.
Biden, who stoked the ire of FDA officials before announcing a mass booster campaign before the plan had regulatory approval, had touted the imminent start of COVID boosters as recently as a few days ago.
The White House attempted to put a positive spin on the FDA decision, framing it as one step in the march toward universal boosters.
'Today was an important step forward in providing better protection to Americans from COVID-19,' White House spokesperson Kevin Munoz said. 'We stand ready to provide booster shots to eligible Americans once the process concludes at the end of next week,' he said.
The FDA is expected to make its final decision on the third round of shots soon. It is not bound by the panel's recommendation, but it is highly unlikely to break with it.
Finally, at the border in Texas, shocking scenes of human misery unfolded as a surge of 12,000 migrants, mostly from Haiti, gathered in a huge camp seeking asylum in the US.
Migrants are seen by the International Bridge between Mexico and the U.S., in Del Rio, Texas
Haitian migrants use a dam to cross to and from the United States from Mexico on Friday in Del Rio, Texas. Thousands of Haitian migrants have assembled under and around a bridge
Thousands have used the dam presenting the Biden administration with a fresh and immediate challenge as it tries to manage large numbers of asylum-seekers who have been reaching U.S. soil
Many of them did not come directly from Haiti, but had been living in South America for years, reports suggest. The surge came after word got out that the Biden administration would not deport Haitians who enter the country illegally, following an earthquake in that country.
Thousands of Haitians have been wading daily across the Rio Grande at Del Rio, Texas, arriving faster than they can be processed and detained.
In the sweltering heat, they have set up camp under the International Bridge, waiting to be processed by US Customs and Border Patrol. The camp, where food and water are in short supply, now equates to a third of the population of Del Rio.
The city's Democratic mayor issued a public appeal on Friday, calling the situation a 'nuclear bomb alarm' that is 'no longer sustainable'.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced he was sending National Guard troops and officers with the Texas Department of Public Safety to the state's ports of entry to 'deter crossings' as he compared the migrant crisis to the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
'The Biden administration is in complete disarray and is handling the border crisis as badly as the evacuation from Afghanistan,' he said.
US President Joe Biden arrives in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on Friday, where he will remain over the weekend with no public events on his schedule
Migrants wait Thursday under and around the international bridge between Del Rio and Ciudad Acuna, Mexico to be processed
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