President Joe Biden’s brief visit to the White House yesterday to deliver a speech blaming Afghan officials for the fall of their nation to the Taliban cost taxpayers at least $30,000.
The main added cost came from Marine One’s rushed round-trip from Camp David, where the president has been vacationing since last weekend.
Biden was not expected to fly to the White House, but the building disaster prompted his team into crisis mode, and he had to hustle back to deliver a 19-minute, nationally broadcast speech to reporters who were not allowed to ask questions.
The most recently produced Navy and Marine Corps budget documents showed that the hourly cost of flying Marine One, in this case, a VH-3D Sea King, is $28,524. The flight from Camp David to Fort Lesley J. McNair and back lasted at least an hour.
That charge, as noted in stories about former President Donald Trump’s Marine One usage, does not include the costs of getting Biden to and from the landing site.
The costs include fuel and maintenance but not personnel, according to a Rand study on the issue.
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Tags: Washington Secrets, Biden Administration, Biden Speech, Joe Biden
Original Author: Paul Bedard
Original Location: Biden’s 19-minute Afghan speech cost taxpayers $30,000
