Joe Biden’s fingerpointing speech at the White House on Monday came at significant expense to the taxpayers.
After leaving for vacation, as Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, his handlers eventually realized that the optics of his leaving Washington when he did weren’t very good. So he was sent over to the White House on Marine One to deliver his 19-minute speech, before hightailing it back to Camp David to resume his rest and relaxation time.
And that short trip cost taxpayers about $30,000.
“The most recently produced Navy and Marine Corps budget documents showed that the hourly cost of flying Marine One, in this case, a VH-3D Sea King, is $28,524,” reports the Washington Examiner. “The flight from Camp David to Fort Lesley J. McNair and back lasted at least an hour.”
This cost doesn’t include getting Biden to and from the landing sites and only includes fuel and maintenance, but not personnel, meaning the trip was actually even more costly to taxpayers.
Biden’s vacation as Afghanistan was falling to the Taliban was widely panned, as was his speech. Even CNN’s Jake Tapper said the speech was “full of finger-pointing and blame.”
“He did not really get into or accept any blame for the catastrophic exit that we have been watching on television for the last several days,” Tapper observed.
Just as quickly as Biden showed up to the White House, he left, returning to Camp David moments after his speech ended.
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