President Joe Biden to stop at Salt Lake City VA hospital in Utah visit
-
- President Joe Biden boards Air Force One upon departure Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Biden is en route to Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
-
- President Joe Biden speaks at Auburn Manufacturing Inc. in Auburn, Maine, on Friday, July 28, 2023, before he signs an executive order to encourage companies to manufacture new inventions in the United States.
Alex Brandon, Associated Press
President Joe Biden boards Air Force One upon departure Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Biden is en route to Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
President Joe Biden is visiting the Beehive State this week to wrap up a three-day trip to the Southwest, after stops in Arizona and New Mexico. The White House announced new details of the presidential itinerary over the weekend.
Biden is expected to arrive in Salt Lake City on Wednesday and will visit a Veterans Affairs hospital in Salt Lake City on Thursday morning to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the PACT Act, legislation expanding benefits for veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits.
According to previous reporting by the Deseret News, the president will then go to Park City for an evening fundraiser hosted by Kristi and John Cumming, founder of ski resort company Powdr, and Nancy and Mark Gilbert, the latter a former U.S. ambassador.
“We are thrilled to welcome President Biden to Utah next week as he tours the southwest and highlights the importance of the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes historic investments in fighting climate change and creating clean energy jobs in our state and across the nation,” Utah Democratic Party Chair Diane Lewis said in a July 31 statement.
Throughout his Southwest tour, Biden is expected to discuss the Inflation Reduction Act, climate change, clean energy and conservation, among other topics. The exact focus of his Utah stop has not yet been announced.
Susan Walsh, Associated Press
President Joe Biden speaks at Auburn Manufacturing Inc. in Auburn, Maine, on Friday, July 28, 2023, before he signs an executive order to encourage companies to manufacture new inventions in the United States.
Details of the visit have been scant since the trip was first announced July 31. It is the first visit to Utah for Biden as president and comes two years after First Lady Jill Biden stopped by a Salt Lake City elementary school. Joe Biden did, though, visit Utah in 2016 while serving as vice president, touring the Huntsman Cancer Institute.
The last time a sitting president visited Utah was in 2017 when then-President Donald Trump visited the Utah Capitol, signing proclamations to shrink the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, and Welfare Square, touring the area with leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Every president has visited Utah while in office since Herbert Hoover.
Biden earned a second-place finish in Utah’s Democratic Party primary in 2020 behind only Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Still, the former vice president went on to receive the nomination. In the general election, Trump easily won the state with 58.13% of votes. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ 37.65% was the highest of any Democrat in Utah since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.
Biden’s second-largest vote share came in Utah County, picking up 76,033 votes (26.73%), behind only Salt Lake County. He was favored in Salt Lake, Summit and Grand counties.
The visit comes months after the president declared he would seek reelection in 2024. Two candidates seeking the Republican nomination for president have visited the Beehive State in the last year. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke last month at the Utah Capitol, flanked by officials from around the state, and gave the keynote address for the Utah Republican Convention at Utah Valley University in April.
Former Vice President Mike Pence also spoke at UVU in September 2022, opening the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy.