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Biden Tells Young Child: ‘You Can Steal A Pumpkin If You Want’

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


President Joe Biden raised eyebrows on Monday when he told a young boy of color that he could “go steal a pumpkin” during his “boring” speech about Thanksgiving to Marine Corps members in North Carolina.

Biden was attempting to be humorous when he approached the eldest of four children, whose Marine Corps mother had just introduced him at the Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point.

“This has to be boring, boring, boring for these kids who are standing up here,” Biden said, laying his hand on the shoulder of the boy. “You’re allowed to do anything you want to do, including go steal a pumpkin if you want – anything you want to do.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you for all you’ve done. By the way, I’m serving mashed potatoes, so come to my place,” Biden said.

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WATCH:

Biden got some bad news earlier this week when Republicans demanded answers on the lack of transparency on visitor logs from his Delaware home.

“The White House has dodged questions on a report that the Secret Service claims to have no records on who has visited Biden’s home, where the president has spent more than 25% of his time since he took office. By comparison, the visitor logs to the White House have been released,” Fox News reported.

Kentucky GOP Rep. James Comer said: “President Biden has spent a large amount of time at his Delaware residence since assuming office. Americans deserve to know who President Biden is meeting with, especially since we know that he routinely met with Hunter’s business associates during his time as vice president. The Biden Administration must provide transparency to the American people.”

South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace also demanded answers from Biden over his Delaware visits, arguing that everyone who comes “into close proximity with the President, in an official or personal capacity, is screened by the Secret Service” and that their record of coming close to the president “exists somewhere.”

“It’s bad if there is official business being conducted and they aren’t telling us with who,” Mace said. “It’s even worse the Administration is using the Secret Service to excuse its complete and total lack of transparency.”

Last month, the U.S. Secret Service admitted that no records exist of who Biden has met with at his Delaware home. The agency said no records exist of those visits as a New York Post Freedom of Information Act request was denied, Fox News reported.

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In a letter dated September 27, Secret Service deputy director Faron Paramore wrote, “the agency conducted an additional search of relevant program offices for potentially responsive records,” according to the paper. “This search also produced no responsive records,” the letter read. “Accordingly, your appeal is denied.” The denial is the latest in a series of developments involving Biden’s records. 

Fox News reported:

Biden has made 57 trips to Delaware, spanning all or part of 185 days, according to data from former CBS correspondent Mark Knoller. The trips require taxpayer dollars to fund costs associated with the use of either Air Force One or Marine One, as well as security costs for the Secret Service. The president spends time in Delaware at his homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach.

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Most of the trips involved direct travel between the White House and Delaware. Biden has made 101 flights between the White House or Joint Base Andrews and Delaware — 71 flights using Marine One and 30 using Air Force One, according to Knoller. Public documents from the Department of Defense comptroller show that the Marine One helicopters used by the president cost between $17,065 and $20,206 per hour. The helicopter trip between the White House and locations in Delaware takes roughly an hour, according to the president’s schedule.

Air Force One’s operational costs are $177,843 per hour, and the trip to Delaware takes roughly 30 minutes, according to the president’s schedule. This puts the total operational costs for the trips, including each method of transportation, at about $4 million.

“Documents obtained by the New York Post last year showed a Secret Service cost of $1.96 million on the president’s first 16 trips to Delaware. A per-trip cost from these data applied to the president’s now 57 trips leaves an approximate $7 million tab for taxpayers,” the outlet reported.

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