NANTUCKET, Mass. — President Joe Biden called on the deeply divided United States to “stop the hate” as he continued his family’s long-standing tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving on this island off Cape Cod.
Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, called NBC News’ Al Roker before the Thanksgiving parade in Manhattan. In brief, upbeat remarks, they said Americans should come together to address the problems facing the country. Although polls show the two parties are divided on a range of issues, Biden said most Americans want to see an end to the feud.
“This Thanksgiving, Al, we must come together,” the president said. “We can have different political views, but our view is one. One view is that we are the greatest and greatest country in the world. We should focus on that.”
“We should focus on dealing with our problems and uniting and stopping the hate. We must unite our country and treat each other with a modicum of civility. That’s what the American people I think that’s the majority’s position.”
The Bidens arrived Tuesday for the Thanksgiving holiday at the waterfront home of billionaire David Rubenstein, co-founder of private equity firm Carlyle Group. According to the White House, on a quiet Thanksgiving morning out of public view, the president and first lady called units from each branch of the military.
They then visited the Nantucket Fire Department with gifts. The president, wearing a baseball cap and a navy blue coat, entered the building with his wife carrying two pie boxes tied with purple ribbons.
Biden is also overseeing an agreement between Israel and Hamas to free hostages held in the Gaza Strip. Israel and Hamas agreed to suspend fighting at midnight ET, and the first 13 hostages from Gaza will be handed over at 9 a.m. ET on Friday, according to Qatar, which is mediating hostage negotiations. It is said that Under an agreement reached between the fighters, Hamas plans to release a total of 50 hostages, and Israeli authorities plan to release 150 detained Palestinians.
As Biden left the firehouse, reporters shouted questions about the hostage deal.
“I’m not prepared to give an update until it’s done,” Biden said.
I asked whether 3 year old american girl The president said he would be one of the first hostages to be released, adding: “I will remain silent.”
In his remarks just before the parade began, Mr. Biden avoided any suggestion of a hostage deal or a partisan message. “I’ve never been more optimistic,” he said.
But his campaign was undaunted.
The email released Thursday by Biden’s reelection campaign was titled “A handy guide to dealing with all the crazy MAGA nonsense this Thanksgiving.” In it, the campaign suggests how to respond at the dinner table if your family starts talking about politics and praising Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in polls.
Should I mention the poll results? President Trump leads Bidenand the campaign suggested that they would counter, “Oh, these are the same pollsters and pundits who said Joe Biden would never become president and that Republicans would win by a landslide in last November’s midterm elections.” are doing.
In his Thanksgiving message, President Trump took a darker tone. “Our country is in deep crisis,” he said on his social media platform Truth Social. “There is no victory for us anymore.”
It was more or less by chance that Nantucket became the location of the Biden family’s Thanksgiving vacation. In 1975, Biden was a widow with two young sons, Beau and Hunter. He was dating Jill Jacobs at the time. Rather than choosing one family for Thanksgiving dinner, Sen. Following the advice of his aides, all four of them headed to Nantucket, Biden wrote in his 2017 memoir, “Dad, Promise Me.”
“It was chilly on the island in late November, but I could smell the tangy, salty air of the Atlantic Ocean,” Biden wrote. “There were no people on the island during the season, so we had most of the place to ourselves.”
No more. As president, Biden will travel with a large group of support staff. Huge C-17 plane lands They were there to unload vehicles and cargo at the island’s small airport earlier in the week. Secret Service agents were spotted walking the island’s cobblestone streets the night before Thanksgiving.
“Today, it’s important that we all engage in acts of kindness,” Jill Biden said as she and her husband spoke with Roker. “Call someone and say Happy Thanksgiving or do something kind.”