Fact check: Biden didn't take full vacation during Afghanistan withdrawal

Ella Lee, USA TODAY
·4 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

The claim: Joe Biden has been on vacation for two weeks

The Biden administration has been criticized for its handling of the departure of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. The withdrawal resulted in the Taliban's return to power, and the evacuation of Americans from Kabul has been chaotic.

Some social media users have taken the criticism a step further, saying the president and top officials in his administration are vacationing instead of addressing the crisis.

“Joe Biden is on a 2 week vacation. Kamala Harris has been nonexistent since Inauguration Day. Jen Psaki is taking a break from her duties as Press Secretary for one week," reads text in an Aug. 18 Instagram post. "The country has questions and there is nobody to answer them. This administration is a joke.”

The post garnered more than 200,000 likes in 3 days. It’s a screenshot of a tweet shared Aug. 16.

Fact check roundup: What’s true and what’s false about the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan

The claim that Biden and key members of his administration are vacationing instead of answering questions about Afghanistan is wrong. While both Biden and Psaki scheduled vacations this month, neither ended up taking them in full. Harris has participated in multiple meetings about the situation in Afghanistan.

USA TODAY reached out to social media users who shared the claim for comment.

Planned vacation not taken in full

Biden was expected to begin a two-week vacation the week of Aug. 9, according to news reports. But Biden's public schedule shows the president didn’t spend much of that time vacationing.

Biden began the week at his residence in Wilmington, Delaware, but he was in Washington from Aug. 10-12. He spent the morning of Aug. 13 back in Wilmington before traveling to Camp David that afternoon.

President Joe Biden speaks about Afghanistan from the East Room of the White House on Monday.
President Joe Biden speaks about Afghanistan from the East Room of the White House on Monday.

Biden only spent the weekend at the presidential retreat.

By the afternoon of Aug. 16, the president was headed back to the White House, where he delivered remarks on Afghanistan. He returned to Camp David shortly after, but the next morning he traveled back to the White House, where he remained for the rest of the week.

From Aug. 9 to 17, when Biden's vacation was scheduled to end, he spent a total of five days in Washington. That's not the two-week vacation the Instagram post claims the president took.

Harris and Psaki have also spent time in Washington addressing the situation in Afghanistan.

More: Taliban: Who they are, how they rose to power and why the U.S. fought them for 20 years

Psaki had scheduled a family vacation for the week of Aug. 16, but she returned to Washington that day to brief the press on Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported. Harris has participated in a number of meetings regarding Afghanistan, according to Biden's public schedule.

Our rating: Partly false

The claim that Biden has been on vacation for two weeks is PARTLY FALSE, based on our research. Though Biden had a two-week vacation scheduled in early and mid-August, he didn't end up taking all that time off. Biden was in Washington for several days to address the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan. Harris has attended most Afghanistan briefings, and Psaki has briefed the press from Washington.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Biden vacation cut short by Taliban's Afghanistan takeover