On Thanksgiving Day, Biden urges national unity, saying "Stop the rancor.
NANTUCKET, Massachusetts — Thanksgiving is traditionally celebrated on
this island off Cape Cod, and President Joe Biden called on the nation's
sharply divided citizens to "stop the rancor."
Al Roker of NBC News received a call from Biden and his spouse, Jill
Biden, prior to the Thanksgiving Day parade in Manhattan. In succinct,
optimistic remarks, they advocated for Americans to come together to address
the issues facing the country. According to polls, the two parties disagree on
a number of issues, but most Americans, according to Biden, would like to see
the animosity end.
"We need to get together this Thanksgiving, Al," the president
remarked. "We may hold varying political opinions, but we only have one.
There is only one opinion, and that is that we are the best country on Earth.
That's what we ought to concentrate on.
"Instead of focusing on dividing, let's work together to solve our
problems. I believe that the great majority of Americans are in the camp that
believes we need to unite the country and treat one another with some modicum
of decency.
The Bidens arrived at billionaire David Rubenstein's waterfront mansion
on Tuesday for the Thanksgiving holiday. Rubenstein is a co-founder of the
private equity firm The Carlyle Group. The president and first lady made calls
to military units from every branch on a quiet Thanksgiving morning that was
hidden from the public eye, according to the White House.
Later, they brought gifts to the Nantucket Fire Department visit. The
president and his wife came inside the building with two pie boxes tied with
purple ribbons. The president was dressed in a navy coat and baseball cap.
Biden has also kept an eye on the agreement between Israel and Hamas to
free the hostages held in Gaza. According to Qatar, a middleman in the hostage
talks, Israel and Hamas have decided to stop fighting at midnight ET, and the
first 13 hostages from Gaza will be released at 9 a.m. ET on Friday. As per the
agreement reached between the combatants, 150 Palestinians detained by Israel
will be freed, and Hamas will release a total of 50 hostages.
As Biden was leaving the fire department, reporters were yelling
questions about the hostage situation.
"I'm not prepared to give an update until it's done," Biden
stated.
When asked if one of the first hostages to be freed would be an American
girl of three years old, the president replied, "I'm crossing my
fingers."
As the parade was about to start, Biden avoided talking about the
hostage situation or anything that seemed like a political statement in his
earlier remarks. He declared, "I've never been more upbeat."
Nonetheless, his campaign didn't back down.
The subject line of an email sent on Thursday by Biden's reelection
campaign read, "Your Handy Guide for Responding To Crazy MAGA Nonsense
This Thanksgiving." The campaign offers advice on how to react at the
dinner table to relatives who bring up politics and compliment Donald Trump,
who is currently leading the field in polls for the Republican presidential
nomination.
The campaign suggests responding, "Oh — those same polls and
pundits who said Joe Biden would never be president, and that Republicans would
have massive wins last November," if they bring up polls that show Trump
leading Biden in the midterm elections.
In his Thanksgiving speech, Trump adopted a more somber tone. "On
his social media platform Truth Social, he wrote, 'Our country is in serious
trouble." "We no longer have victories."
More or less by accident, the Biden family chose Nantucket as their Thanksgiving
getaway destination. With Beau and Hunter, his two young sons, Biden was a
widower in 1975. He was seeing Jill Jacobs at the time. As stated in his 2017
memoir "Promise Me, Dad," then-Sen. Biden followed the advice of an
aide and all four of them traveled to Nantucket for Thanksgiving dinner rather
than picking one family over the other.
"End of November on the island was chilly, but you could smell the
Atlantic's tangy salt air," Biden wrote. We had a large portion of the
island to ourselves because it had emptied out for the season.
Not anymore. In his capacity as president, Biden travels with a large
support staff entourage. Earlier this week, massive C-17 aircraft made a
landing at the island's tiny airport to offload cargo and cars. On Thanksgiving
eve, Secret Service agents were observed strolling around the cobblestone
streets of the island.
Jill Biden told Roker, "It's important that we all commit to an act
of kindness today," along with her husband. "Do something nice or
give someone a call to wish them a happy Thanksgiving."
