The Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday restricted airspace over Wilmington, Delaware, over the weekend, revealing that President Biden planned to return home despite the chaotic situation in Afghanistan.
Temporary flight restrictions for the “VIP move” will take effect Friday evening and last until 1:30 a.m. Monday, according to an FAA alert released Thursday.
The White House released a daily schedule Thursday night confirming that Biden will travel to Wilmington around 2 p.m. Friday after delivering a speech on Afghanistan.
The trip, Biden’s 18th since he was president, comes after he faced an intense backlash over being at Camp David in Maryland last weekend as the Taliban quickly swept Afghanistan, taking the capital from Kabul on Sunday.
The president finally limited his trip and returned to the White House to address the nation on Monday, admitting that “this developed faster than we had anticipated.”
He then returned to Camp David, before returning and returning to the White House on Tuesday night.
A close ally of Biden’s foreign policy told the Washington Post that the president’s team would never have let him out of DC last weekend if he had known of the impending crisis, including the ongoing struggle to evacuate citizens of the states. United and Afghan allies in Kabul.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said last week in response to a question from The Post that Biden will not publish records of its visitors to Delaware, although the Biden White House has published official visitor lists in the western wing.
The president’s plans this weekend seemed to change, as he faced significant bipartisan criticism over plans for the final withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan. FAA restrictions indicated that Biden would travel to Wilmington on Thursday.