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REHOBOTH BEACH, Delaware / WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic President-elect Joe Biden and incumbent Republican President Donald Trump, like hundreds of millions of Americans, planned quiet Thanksgiving celebrations at home on Thursday, as the pandemic of coronavirus spreads throughout the United States.
Former Democratic Vice President Biden was vacationing in the small seaside town of Rehoboth, Delaware, where he and his wife Jill have a vacation home. The Bidens were to host their daughter Ashley Biden and her husband, Dr. Howard Kerin, for the holiday meal.
This year will be a rare break from the Bidens’ decades-long tradition of reuniting with extended family for Thanksgiving, usually on Nantucket Island off Massachusetts. In a pre-Thanksgiving speech on Wednesday, Biden said they had traveled for Thanksgiving for 40 years, except for a year after the death of their son Beau in 2015.
He alluded to that duel in his presidential-style address to a nation that has lost more than 260,000 lives to the coronavirus.
“I remember that first Thanksgiving, the empty chair, the silence,” Biden said. “It takes your breath away. It’s really hard to care. It’s hard to give thanks.”
For Republican President Trump, Thursday was a far cry from last year when he paid a surprise visit https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-afghanistan/trump-makes-surprise-afghanistan-trip-voices -hope-for-ceasefire-idUSKBN1Y225Y to Afghanistan. There he met with President Ashraf Ghani and served turkey to some American troops before sitting down to dinner with them.
Trump often likes to celebrate the holidays at his Florida resort Mar-a-Largo, but on Thursday he was scheduled to stay at the White House. In contrast to Biden, who pleaded with Americans to celebrate the holiday safely by wearing masks and social distancing, Trump urged Americans to “come together” in his Thanksgiving proclamation.
“I encourage all Americans to come together, in homes and places of worship, to offer a prayer of thanks to God for our many blessings,” the president, who has recovered from his own case of COVID-19, said in a statement. last month.
IGNORING THE HEALTH WARNINGS
Trump has frequently ignored public health warnings and hosted large groups at the White House, with many of his guests refusing to wear masks. In addition to Trump, several other prominent Americans, including First Lady Melania Trump and members of Congress, tested positive for COVID after such events.
While fewer than normal Americans are expected to travel this year for Thanksgiving, millions still defied pleas from state and local officials and health experts and traveled to family gatherings rather than staying home, to despite the increasing rate of infection.
Deaths from COVID-19 topped 2,000 in a single day on Tuesday for the first time since May, and hospitalizations hit a record high of more than 89,000 on Wednesday.
Biden has been moving forward with the transition to his new government and has vowed to prioritize controlling the virus. This week he announced members of his national security team and has promised to announce more appointments, including his economic team, in the coming days.
Despite not yet granting the election, Trump agreed that Biden’s transition should proceed officially, clearing the way, for example, for Biden to receive high-level intelligence reports. But the president continues to make unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud, while his legal advisers continue to make efforts to overturn the result, with little success.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis, Jeff Mason, and Patricia Zengerle; written by Patricia Zengerle; edited by Michelle Price and Simon Cameron-Moore)
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