Joe and Jill Biden visit Children’s National Hospital to read to sick kids
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President Joe Biden praised a girl for ‘working’ during his visit to Children’s National Hospital on Friday as Jill Biden read The Snowy Day.
‘You’re so cute, little tyke. You can tell that she is working,” she said, appearing to be speaking to a 21-month-old boy sitting on his mother’s lap.
The visit includes a private meeting with the patients and the reading of a Christmas story in front of a giant Christmas tree.
Jill even noted that there was snowfall that day as a bomb cyclone hit the Midwest, grounding thousands of flights and leaving nearly a million and a half homes without power. Washington DC got a short burst of gusts as a cold snap rolled in.
President Joe Biden helps hold The Snow Day as First Lady Jill Biden reads to sick children at Children’s National Hospital in Washington DC
‘You’re so cute, little tyke. You can tell she’s doing well,’ President Joe Biden told a girl in the crowd at the hospital.
‘How many of you have made snow angels?’ she said. I loved doing that.
It was the second year in a row that President Biden joined Jill Biden on her visit to the children’s hospital. First ladies have been visiting Washington DC’s premier hospital for sick children for more than 75 years, dating back to Bess Truman.
Jill Biden read The Snowy Day, a children’s story about a boy named Peter and his adventures in the snow. It’s the 60th anniversary of the book, written by Ezra Jack Keats.
President Biden helped hold the book so the children could see the pictures as Jill read them.
“That’s my job,” he joked about his role.
He shook hands with some of the children in the reading room. There were around 20 of them present.
Five-year-old Miles, wearing a very elegant green suit, accompanied Jill Biden to the event.
Patients and their families listen to First Lady Jill Biden reading Ezra Jack Keats’ The Snowy Day
President Joe Biden shakes hands with one of the children during the visit
Aubrey, 10, escorted President Joe Biden into the room
The Bidens also met privately with patients and staff and spent about an hour at the hospital.
The first family will spend Christmas at the White House, so unlike many Americans, they won’t be attempting to travel when nearly two-thirds of the United States is under a winter weather alert.
The snow has caused thousands of flight cancellations ahead of the busiest weekend of the year. The latest figures from FlightAware say 3,100 flights were canceled on Friday alone, after thousands more were grounded on Thursday.
The weather also delayed more than 10,000 flights and the knock-on effect is likely to mean the chaos will continue once the storm has passed.
People have also been warned not to travel by road as icy conditions and high winds make roads and highways potential death traps.
Some 200 million Americans, about 60 percent of the population, are under some form of winter weather advisory as chills and power outages will disappoint those struggling to be with loved ones at Christmas.
PARADISE VALLEY, MONTANA: Fog rises over ice flows on the Yellowstone River as it froze over in record-breaking weather
MANDAN, NORTH DAKOTA: Rows of headstones at the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery are covered in drifting snow
CHICAGO: A runner runs along the snow-covered shoreline of Lake Michigan at sunrise before the Christmas holidays, on December 23, 2022, in Chicago.
Severe frost warnings were posted in the Gulf Coast states of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida, while significant icing was possible due to a separate arctic blast that struck the Pacific Northwest.
The dire conditions have also caused unavoidable delays in last-minute package deliveries. FedEx said it experienced “substantial outages” at the Memphis and Indianapolis hubs. UPS said deliveries and pickups at the Louisville, Kentucky and Rockford, Illinois hubs were affected.
By Thursday night, most of the lower 48 states, from Washington state to Florida, were under wind chill watches, blizzard warnings or other winter weather advisories.
Strong winds across the country brought down power lines with the most outages in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana, according to poweroutage.es.