President Biden headed to the US Virgin Islands on Tuesday to relax and ring in the new year with family.
The White House confirmed late Monday that the president and first lady Jill Biden will leave for St. Croix on Tuesday. Other islands are St. John and St. Thomas.
Biden has visited St Croix when he was vice president, from 2009 to 2017.
Beth Moss Mahar, a 30-year island resident and retired attorney, stated, “We’ve missed him.”
Biden spent 2020 and 2021 holidays in Delaware because of COVID-19. This is his first visit as president to St Croix.
Democrat Stacey Plaskett, who represents the Virgin Islands in Congress, said, “We’re honored.”
“When he and his family came, President Biden sightings were legendary,” she said.
Biden’s status as one of the world’s most powerful men will affect sightings. As president, he travels with more Secret Service agents, White House officials, and journalists than when he was vice president.
Jill Biden enjoys a beach for the week between Christmas and New Year’s, aides say. They expected family members.
Donna Christensen, Plaskett’s predecessor in Congress, said, “We always look forward to his coming and we recognize that this is a haven of leisure for him, Jill, and any other family he may bring.”
“He says, ‘On my next life, I’ll live in St. Croix,'” she remarked.
Plaskett and Christensen hope that attention to where Biden spends his year-end vacation will amplify challenges facing the US Virgin Islands and other US territories, such as threats from climate change, including more powerful hurricanes and rising sea levels, and problems coping with ageing infrastructure.
Biden was due back on January 2. The Democratic Party will lose control of the House of Representatives in the November midterm elections, complicating Biden’s legislative agenda for the next two years.
