President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris abruptly changed vacation plans and returned to Washington, D.C., on Thursday, the Sun reported. There's no word on why this happened, which fueled speculation.
Biden was set to spend the Christmas break at his home in Delaware while Harris was heading back to California. However, both had their plans canceled as they returned to the capital on Thursday.
The president was later seen returning to the White House with his family, including his grandson Beau. It's still unclear why he was needed in the nation's capital on short notice.
🔥🚨BREAKING: Joe Biden has arrived at the White House after canceling his Delaware holiday stay. Kamala Harris also returned to the White House under an emergency. There is still no confirmation on why Biden and Harris returned. pic.twitter.com/8WnCNnFmUA
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) December 20, 2024
Democrats and Republicans have been arguing about how to solve the funding shortfall that would have shut down the government at midnight Saturday. A bipartisan bill earlier this week would have extended government operations until March, but President-elect Donald Trump urged lawmakers to reject it.
The incoming Republican and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance felt it had too many concessions for Democratic pet causes. The bill would have given farmers $10 billion for relief and provided $100 billion in disaster relief.
"If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then call their bluff. It is [Chuck] Schumer and Biden who are holding up aid to our farmers and disaster relief," Trump and Vance said in a joint statement.
The major sticking point for Trump was the increase to the debt ceiling, which is currently at $31.4 trillion. Democrats wanted to blow the lid off and allow for more spending.
That's precisely what ultimately passed just ahead of Saturday's deadline to keep the government open. The third iteration of the bill included disaster and farm aid but left out the increase in the debt ceiling.
Avoiding a government shutdown was certainly a priority for Democrats and would perhaps explain why the top two politicians in the party would stick around until it was resolved. However, others speculate that increased tension in the war between Ukraine and Russia may have had something to do with it.
Around the same time that Harris and Biden were returning to Washington, D.C., Russia sent several ballistic missiles into Ukraine's capital city of Kyiv, the Washington Post reported. At least one person was killed and 12 others injured.
This represented an increase in aggression not long after Russian President Vladimir Putin challenged allies of Ukraine to a "duel" at his year-end conference. He was insinuating that Russia's Oreshnik missile system, with nuclear-capable and intermediate-range artillery, was unstoppable.
There are many tense and dangerous situations happening in the world that could have taken Biden and Harris back to Washington, D.C. Without any definitive information, it's still anyone's guess why they would have canceled vacation plans.
