White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended President Joe Biden's many days away from Washington saying Thursday that he 'has a right to spend time with his family.'
At the press briefing, a reporter pointed to a new Gallup survey that included the figure that 17 percent of Americans are traveling less or canceling vacations due to inflation, asking if Biden would adjust his frequent weekending out of town.
'The times that the president has gone to Delaware - not including and we were very clear that when he went to South Carolina in August and Rehoboth he was going to go spend time with his family - which every president does,' Jean-Pierre explained. 'That it not unusual.'
'And the president has the right to spend time with his family,' she continued. 'Just like every American across the country.'
At the end of August, Biden had spent 234 days away - mostly in Wilmington, Delaware - out of the 589 he had spent in office.
He's also spent time at Camp David, his Wilmington, Delaware beach home, Kiawah Island, South Carolina and Nantucket, Massachusetts - where the Bidens like to spend their Thanksgivings.
Pointing to his frequent trips home - to his Wilmington lakeside abode - Jean-Pierre argued that Biden was spending time working.
'Look, the way we see that is the president can be president anywhere,' she said.
'He can work from the residence, he can work from the Oval Office, he can work from Delaware,' she continued. 'That is what he's able to do as president of the United States.'
Jean-Pierre argued that Biden is tackling inflation, pointing to how gas prices have come down throughout the summer.
'He's doing everything that he can to make sure that we lower costs,' she said.
She also mentioned the Inflation Reduction Act, which Democrats in the House and Senate passed before August recess.
The bill includes provisions that reduce the cost of presciption drugs, among other measures.
Vacations have always been politically problematic for presidents - with Democrats complaining about all the time former President Donald Trump spent at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster and Trump, before his run for the presidency, tweeting about how much time Democratic President Barack Obama spent on the golf course.