President Joe Biden took a break from the White House to visit the Delaware gravesite of his first wife and their baby girl on the anniversary of the tragic 1972 car crash that took their lives.
Biden was pictured with his family, including son Hunter and his one-year-old grandson Beau, on Saturday outside of St. Joseph on the Brandywine in his hometown of Wilmington for the 49th anniversary of the deaths of the president’s first wife, Neilia, and daughter Naomi.
Neilia Biden and the couple’s 13-month old daughter, Naomi, were killed when their car was struck by a tractor-trailer as she took the kids to pick out a Christmas tree.
Sons Hunter and Beau were seriously injured. They were a year and a day apart in age, at 3 and 4.
The tragedy haunted him at the start of his Senate career and has been a touchstone of his presidency, with Biden recently opening a speech in Minnesota by noting how two of that state’s former senators helped him cope.
Accompanying Biden to mark the tragic anniversary was his son Hunter who brought along his young son Beau, who was pictured outside the church walking alongside his dad.
Biden’s youngest grandchild is named after his deceased son who died of brain cancer in 2015, who along with his mother and sister is buried in the cemetery directly outside the church.
The president and the first lady were seen paying their respects following mass.
Biden and his family have attended he church for years and as president he has made dozens of visits accompanied by his large family.
His somber visit comes as a new poll shows his approval rating among young voters has hit a new low.
This week a Pew Center Research poll found that Biden’s approval rating stands at 27 per cent among Americans under 30, which is the lowest level of support among any age group in the survey.
It represents a startling 50-point drop from when the Economist and YouGov surveyed Gen Z and millennial Americans in January.
The numbers are surprising because younger voters have trended heavily Democratic in recent elections, with millennials and Gen Z voters favoring Biden over former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election by 24 points.
It would appear that both 2020 presidential candidates are unpopular, another poll released this week found that a whopping 58 per cent of U.S. voters don’t think Joe Biden should run for reelection in 2024, while 56 per cent also say they don’t want Donald Trump to run in the next presidential election.
If Biden didn’t run, according to a Morning Consult/Politico poll released Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris has the plurality of votes to replace him with 31 per cent saying they would want her on the ticket if not Biden in 2024.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is in second place with 11 per cent.
Biden has long said that he will run for reelection after his four years are up, snuffing rumors that he was only running in 2020 to defeat Trump and help usher in a replacement of his choosing.
Trump has also teased a run in 2024 – but says he won’t announce until after the 2022 midterm elections.
His low poll numbers come as as the Omicron variant threaten to put a damper on American’s holiday season.
