Fox News states:
In a related story, Biden will be taking another long weekend at the beach and has spent 40% of his presidency on vacation," Fox News contributor Joe Concha posted
Has Biden spent 40% of his presidency on vacation?
Fox News states:
In a related story, Biden will be taking another long weekend at the beach and has spent 40% of his presidency on vacation," Fox News contributor Joe Concha posted
Has Biden spent 40% of his presidency on vacation?
If you count all weekend days as "on vacation", which this accounting does, that's almost 29% right there, while the remaining 11% is composed of other days when Biden was not at the White House and not on an official trip.
Biden spends most weekends at his Delaware home, but often he is accompanied by his top aides and the home is equipped with all the communication equipment he might need to work with his staff, the rest of the government, and world leaders.
To say that all the time he is in Delaware is spent "on vacation" appears intentionally misleading.
No. The answer by @antlersoft points out that Fox News' accounting includes weekends in their definition of "vacation". And yet, in normal colloquial American English, no one uses the word "vacation" to describe a normal two-day weekend. The dictionary too defines "vacation" as
an extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home or in traveling.
Thus, Fox News' claim would be false even if Biden did not work for a single minute during those weekends when he is away from the White House and not traveling on official business.
Of course, the nature of the President's job is such that clearly Biden did significant actual work from his Delaware home and other places where he was "vacationing". For example, here is a New York Times article documenting some of the official business Biden had to deal with in the summer of 2023 while taking an actual vacation in Lake Tahoe. This makes the "40% of his presidency on vacation" claim doubly false.
I'll give the writer of the Fox News piece credit for one thing: he does the absolute minimum to avoid outright lying, by putting most of the mentions of "vacation" in quotes attributed to others, thus conveniently reserving for himself the role of a mere conductor for other people's dishonesty instead of its primary practitioner. The linked article never actually claims that "Biden spent 40% of his presidency on vacation" or that the claims by others that it is parroting are correct. In addition to the use of quotes, the article uses the weasel word "reportedly", as in the article's subheading: "Biden has reportedly spent roughly 40% of his presidency on vacation".
You and I think "vacation" means "not working".
The numbers use "vacation" to mean "not in the White House". This is misleading.
The articles want you think "vacation" means "not doing their job as President". This is a lie.
After digging through several layers of articles (see 'New York Post "Report"' below), I found the actual source for the numbers are the Republican National Committee.
In Truth About Biden's Vacations published by the RNC...
In fact, Biden has spent 354 days on vacation since taking office, including all or part of:
- 237 days in Delaware (188 days in Wilmington and 49 days in Rehoboth Beach).
- 91 days at Camp David.
- 26 days at other destinations (12 days in Nantucket, seven days in Kiawah Island, SC, and seven days in the U.S. Virgin Islands).
Their definition appears to be "not at the White House".
They go on to offer numbers for other presidents...
These line up with the numbers in the Fox article.
I don't doubt the RNC's numbers, a lie is so much more powerful when it's wrapped around a kernel of truth. Their no-context presentation of the numbers and choice of "vacation" pushes the implication that Biden is not doing his job 40% of the time...
Biden is already the least popular and least accessible president in modern history. Now, he can add another accolade to his collection.
CBS News White House Correspondent .5 Knoller in 'Reporter's notebook: When presidents go on "vacation," controversy follows' talks about the problems of reporting on Presidential "vacations".
Of all the numbers in my files on presidential activities, none generates more controversy than "vacations."... I deliberately put quotation marks on the word "vacation" as recognition that a modern U.S. president is never really on "vacation," not the way most people understand the word.
…
In a book, author Vincent Bugliosi used my "vacation" numbers to support his contention that President Bush "could not care less about the human suffering and carnage going on in Iraq, or anywhere." It's an unfair claim, since presidential "vacations" have more to do with a change of venue than a getaway from the duties of office. Presidents can do things on "vacation" they can't do at the White House, but they remain on-duty 24/7.
Knoller carefully defines and contextualizes his reporting so as not to be misleading.
In What a beach vacation looks like for President Biden, NPR describes what a "vacation" is like for a modern president.
While families heading to Rehoboth this summer might haul coolers of food and beach toys with them in the car, the president has a far bigger packing list.
"You have to bring national security aides, you have to bring a [communications] apparatus, obviously you have to bring the football — which is the nuclear codes — so a presidential vacation is much more complicated than just loading up the minivan with some peanut butter sandwiches and suitcases," [Tevi Troy, a presidential historian and former White House aide] said.
Biden has interrupted past time away from the White House in order to sign the Inflation Reduction Act and postponed plans to head to Delaware in order to speak about the evacuation of American citizens from Afghanistan.
This is in contrast to what the Fox article claims the numbers mean.
The Fox article never defines nor discusses what a Presidential "vacation" is like. Instead, they surround their statistics with the very implications that Knoller tries to avoid. Only once does the Fox imply that "vacation" means "time outside Washington, D.C".
Biden is on pace to spend about 40% of his presidency on vacation, compared to former President Trump who spent 26% of his time outside Washington, D.C., and Obama's 11%.
The article implies when Biden is on "vacation" he is unreachable...
According to a New York Post report last fall, Biden was home in Delaware during several tumultuous moments, including the early days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and during the first discovery of Chinese spy balloons over the United States.
Note the article carefully just says Biden was at his home in Delaware, not that he wasn't also being President.
The Fox article refers to a New York Post "report" about Slacker-in-chief Biden which says vacations are "personal overnight trips away from the White House" according to the RNC.
Biden has spent all or part of 382 of his presidency’s 957 days – or 40% — on personal overnight trips away from the White House... according to data calculated by the Republican National Committee and confirmed by The Post using White House reports of Biden’s movements.
These are accompanied by lots of pictures of Biden relaxing creating the impression that Biden is not being President for any of that time. They also mention all those weekends Biden is not spending in the White House on "vacation".
The president’s “vacation” days include 100 of the 135 weekends since his inauguration spent secluded in one of his two Delaware homes, at Camp David in Maryland, or in the mansions of billionaire pals.
If I spent 25% of my weekends at work, I'd be applauded (or told to go home). This is all just another way to lie with statistics.
Biden’s “vacations”, according to a NY Post article, consisted mostly of “personal overnight trips away from the White House”. That means he probably takes a helicopter to his home in Delaware to sleep on a lot of nights.
It’s not going on vacation, it’s called commuting to work.
A lot of people commute to work, and among executives, it’s very common. For Biden, in a helicopter, it’s about a half-hour commute.
When you see claims like that, consider your source.
The term "on vacation" might be misleading as it really means "away from the White House" but not on official business. Compared to other presidents:
You can decide for yourself what you believe any of them are/were doing while away, but he is gone more than other recent Presidents though Bush was close. Weekend days while at the White House are not counted as "on vacation".
For those complaining about the Post as a source, it is straight out of the Fox article. And the Cleveland source is straight out of the Post article. All these articles define "vacation" the same way, which is what the OP was asking about. Disregarding the source that explains the 40% number in favor of numerous baseless opinions makes no sense.