The possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine is keeping President Joe Biden hunkered down at the White House this weekend, marking just the second weekend of the year he’s spent in Washington, D.C.
Biden’s last weekend in town was the final weekend in January. He and first lady Jill Biden attended a National Governors Association dinner at the historic home of George Washington in Mt. Vernon, Virginia, that occurred on Jan. 30.
FOR BIDEN, TRAVELING THE COUNTRY MEANS STICKING CLOSE TO HOME
Beyond that, Biden has split the other six weekends of the year between his home in Wilmington, Delaware, and the president’s retreat at Camp David. He spent New Year’s weekend at the former and squeezed in subsequent visits from Jan. 14 to Jan. 17 and again from Feb. 4 to Feb. 6. His first stop at Camp David of 2022 came on the back end of a trip to California and Las Vegas, Jan. 7-10, with his second following two weekends later.
Biden’s third Camp David trip took place between Feb. 11 and Monday, during which he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and top National Security Council officials.
Biden and administration officials seriously stepped up their rhetoric in the subsequent week and began warning that the likelihood of a Russian invasion was “very high.” Biden himself told reporters when leaving the White House on Thursday that he believed it would come in the next few days.
Furthermore, the State Department signaled Friday that Russian state media’s claims of attempted “provocateur” attacks against a chemical plant in eastern Ukraine were the exact type of “false flag” operation Russia would use to justify a full-fledged invasion.
“Announcements like these are further attempts to obscure through lies and disinformation that Russia is the aggressor in this conflict,” a State Department official said of the events Friday. “This type of false flag operation is exactly what Secretary Blinken highlighted in his remarks to the U.N. Security Council.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki and deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre both cautioned the press in recent days to be aware of Russia’s attempts to sow “confusion and obfuscation” ahead of a potential attack.
“An attack could come at any time,” Jean-Pierre told reporters traveling with Biden to Ohio on Thursday. “We believe it’s important that the world be watching for that pretext and that people treat any such claims with the appropriate skepticism, especially when they come from Russian state media sources.”
Meanwhile, U.S. officials have stated that Russia has actually increased its force posture at the Ukrainian border to as many as 190,000 troops — despite statements from Putin saying he is moving resources away from Ukraine.
The president expressed a significant level of discomfort with living in the White House during his first year in office, often referring to the residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as a “gilded cage.”
During a CNN town hall, he joked that he frequently wakes up in the morning and asks his wife, “Where the hell are we?”
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“I don’t know about you all, but I was raised in a way that you didn’t look for anybody to wait on you,” Biden continued. “And it’s where I find myself extremely self-conscious for the wonderful people who work in the White House, but someone is standing there and hands me my suit coat.”
