Former US vice president Joe Biden on Monday made his first in-person appearance in more than two months as he marked Memorial Day by laying a wreath at a veterans’ park near his Delaware home.
Since abruptly canceling a March 10 rally in Cleveland, Ohio, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has waged much of his campaign from his home in Wilmington.
When Biden emerged on Monday, he wore a mask, in contrast to US President Donald Trump, who has refused to cover his face in public as health officials suggest.
Biden and his wife, Jill, laid a wreath of white flowers tied with a white bow and bowed their heads in silence at the park. He saluted.
“Never forget the sacrifices that these men and women made,” he said afterward. “Never, ever, forget.”
“I feel great to be out here,” Biden told reporters, his words muffled through his black cloth mask.
Biden’s visit to the park was unannounced and there was no crowd waiting for him.
Biden briefly greeted a county official and another man, both wearing masks and standing about 1m away.
Biden also yelled to a larger group standing nearby: “Thank you for your service.”
His campaign said that Biden had often in the past gone to the park for Memorial Day, although services were canceled on Monday amid the pandemic.
While low-key, the appearance was a milestone in a presidential campaign that has largely been frozen by the pandemic.
While the feasibility of traditional events such as rallies and the presidential conventions are in doubt, Biden’s emergence suggests that he will not spend the nearly five months that remain until the election entirely at home.
Biden has adjusted to the pandemic by building a TV studio in his home, which he has used to make appearances on news programs, late-night shows and virtual campaign events.
Some of those efforts have been marred by technical glitches and other awkward moments.
Some Democratic strategists have openly worried that Biden is ceding too much ground to Trump by staying home. Trump has knocked Biden for essentially campaigning from his basement.
Biden’s advisers have said that they plan to return to normal campaign activities at some point, including travel to battleground states.
However, they are in no hurry, preferring to defer to the advice of health experts and authorities’ stay-at-home and social distancing recommendations.
At 77, Biden is among the nation’s senior population thought to be especially vulnerable to the effects of the novel coronavirus — although so is Trump, who turns 74 next month.
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