White House claims Biden is leading country on holiday for second straight year

The White House reiterated on Monday that President Biden remains in charge of the country despite being on vacation for a second consecutive week.

White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby, in a conference call on Monday, marked the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. soldiers and more than 100 Afghans on Aug. 26, 2021, outside Kabul airport.

Biden, who has been spending this week at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, has made headlines for not making any public appearances on the anniversary of the deadly terrorist attack. Last week, while Biden was vacationing in California, the Israeli military announced that it had carried out a preemptive strike in Lebanon that destroyed thousands of Hezbollah rocket launchers, effectively preventing the terrorist group from carrying out a larger-scale attack on central Israel.

On Monday, a journalist pointed out Biden's absence from public appearances in a question for Kirby.

“The president's public behavior and the paucity of public events, like just today, is feeding the public perception that Biden is becoming increasingly removed from the presidency,” Newsmax's James Rosen said on the call. “The question we get asked over and over again by the public, and the question I ask the admiral here, is, 'Who's running the country?'

After vowing to end the Gaza war, Biden is hopping from holiday to holiday as the Middle East lurches into crisis

“Is he in some sense a ceremonial figure at this point?” he added.

“James, you should know that by now. My goodness, he spoke to Prime Minister Modi today,” Kirby said of Biden. “He had calls last week with regional and European leaders, President Zelensky. He was monitoring what was going on in real time over the weekend. I'm not kidding.”

“The president is on vacation, but he can never be away from work, and he's not about to do that,” Kirby added. “He's doing everything he can to ensure we continue to protect our national security interests at home and, of course, abroad.”

Former President Donald Trump stands next to Misty Fuoco, sister of Staff Sergeant Nicole Gee, who died in the Abbey Gate bombing, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on August 26, 2024. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Former President Trump attended a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday with the families of 13 soldiers killed in action. Biden and Vice President Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee for 2024, both did not attend, but each released a statement listing the names of the 13 U.S. military personnel who were killed.

Trump is expected to blast Harris on the third anniversary of the attack in Afghanistan that killed 13 Americans.

Last month, some of the families of fallen soldiers took to the stage at the Republican National Convention to denounce Biden for never publicly naming them, and the Trump campaign has stepped up its criticism of the Biden-Harris administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan, noting that Harris had “bragged” about being the last person in the room with Biden before the decision to withdraw.

“We're not going to let the Abbey Gate bombing happen,” National Security Adviser John Kirby said during a regular press briefing at the White House on July 31, 2024. Kirby was on a media call on Monday to mark the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The Trump campaign on Monday criticized neither Biden nor Harris for publicly speaking the names of the 13 Americans killed, despite their written statements, and stressed that the withdrawal response “left thousands of Americans stranded and billions of dollars worth of U.S. equipment in the hands of the Taliban.”

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Both Biden and Harris' statements noted the end of “America's longest war” and commemorated the 2,461 U.S. troops killed and 20,744 wounded in the two-decade conflict.