Pool Reports of January 15, 2023

Travel pool #1/headed to DANG

President Biden's motorcade emerged from his leafy neighborhood in Wilmington at 8:25am.

We are headed to the Delaware Air National Guard base for a flight to Atlanta aboard the smaller, cell service impaired Air Force One.

The 11am service at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, with the president billed as guest speaker, will be livestreamed on the church website:
https://www.ebenezeratl.org/watch-us-live/

Travel pool #2/departing Delaware

The motorcade arrived at DANG at after an uneventful drive from the Bidens' home in Wilmington.

The president boarded Air Force One without speaking with the pool at 8:35am. He is wearing a dark suit and held an overcoat draped over his left arm. He turned and waved at pool before boarding.

Next stop Atlanta.

Traveling with the President via motorcade en route Delaware Air National Guard Base, New Castle, Delaware:

Bruce Reed, Assistant to the President & Deputy Chief of Staff
Terry Wolff, Special Assistant to the President & Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa, National Security Council
Ashley Williams, Special Assistant to the President & Deputy Director of Oval Office Operations

Traveling with the President aboard Air Force One en route Hartsfield- Jackson International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia:

Bruce Reed, Assistant to the President & Deputy Chief of Staff
Karine Jean-Pierre, Assistant to the President & Press Secretary
Vinay Reddy, Assistant to the President & Director of Speechwriting
Ryan Montoya, Deputy Assistant to the President & Director of Scheduling & Advance
Reema Dodin, Deputy Assistant to the President & Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs & Senate
Terry Wolff, Special Assistant to the President & Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa, National Security Council
Ashley Williams, Special Assistant to the President & Deputy Director of Oval Office Operations
Carla Frank, Special Assistant to the President & Deputy Director of the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach

Travel pool #3/Atlanta arrival

Air Force One touched down at ATL at 10:08am. Takeoff from DANG was at 8:45am.

Uneventful flight to Atlanta. No visitors to the back of the plane.

Travel pool #4/Atlanta airport

Air Force One pulled to a stop at 10:15 near the FedEx and UPS end of ATL.

President Biden emerged at 10:23am and walked straight to Senator Jon Ossoff and Andre Dickens, Mayor of Atlanta, who were side by side at the back of the presidential limo. He shook their hands and chatted. He gave the mayor a friendly gentle chest punch with his right fist before getting into the limo a moment later.

Karine Jean-Pierre stood with the pool awaiting the president. One pooler called out a question to POTUS, asking if he would be willing to speak with a special counsel. Couldn't tell if the question was unheard or just ignored.

Pool boarded its bus. Motorcade rolled at 10:26.

It's 36 and sunny in Atlanta.

Next stop Ebenezer Baptist Church for the "MLK Jr. Sunday" 11am service which, as a reminder, will livestream at
https://www.ebenezeratl.org/watch-us-live/

Pool report #5/Ebenezer Baptist arrival

President Biden arrived at Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church at 10:43 am after an uneventful motorcade from ATL.

travel pool #6/Ebenezer Baptist Church service has begun

The 11am service has begun.

The choir sang as pool got situated in the balcony. Pews up here are otherwise empty but those on the main level are filled. MARTA buses are parked and visible through the windows, blocking the view from outside.

Music restarted at precisely 11am. "Praise ye the Lord..." President Biden and Sen. Raphael Warnock, who has been the senior pastor here since 2005 took their seats across the dais from a pair of timpani drums, the keyboard just behind them.

Biden took out a folder and seemed to be reviewing his speech as the first hymn filled the cavernous sanctuary. He put it on the small table between him and Warnock. Worshippers rose and clapped. Biden and Warnock stood for the second hymn "The spirit of the Lord is here..." as four women danced and got the congregation pumped up. Biden remained standing but was notably less... kinetic than the choir behind him and the dancers 15 feet in front.

travel pool #7/Ebenezer service - Biden speaking soon

Speaking Program
Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (GA)
Reverend Chelsea Waite
The President

"We celebrate the birthday of the greatest American prophet of the 20th century, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.," Warnock told the congregation. "Presidents and ordinary people gather in the sanctuary in the presence of the Lord. And the presence of the Lord is here."

"Now, there are really too many elected officials here to name," Warnock said a few minutes later, drawing laughter. He added: "Who else but Martin Luther King the 3d could get the president of the United States here." Applause. Warnock then did call out the mayor, and teasingly asked "where did you get that suit? Call me." And then for the previous mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, who now works as a senior presidential adviser at the White House. And "our hero, Ambassador Andrew Young, is here." And Sen. Jon Ossoff. "He is my brother from another mother. He's younger than me but he's the senior senator."

"We're all gathered in the house of God. We all drink from the same fountain," Warnock said.

Warnock mentioned deaths this morning of a University of Georgia football player and a staff member in a car accident this morning. "We lift these families in prayer. We pray for our city. We pray for our state. We pray for our nation. We pray for the world."

Waite offered a prayer for "God we need you to show up," including in Congress as policy is debated.

Warnock returned to the lectern. He noted the monuments in the nation's capital -- to Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson. He quoted Jefferson's words in the Declaration of Independence, that "all men are created equal" etc.

"But on the other side of the Tidal Basin, a Black man stands there with his arms folded, as if to say to Thomas Jefferson did you mean what you said?" he said, referring to the MLK memorial.

Warnock called out others in the King family, including MLK's sister. "Mr. President until the pandemic she was here every Sunday sitting in that seat....Can you imagine how intimidating it is to sit here and preach with Martin Luther King Jr.'s sister," Warnock said, giving a "heh heh heh" laugh. Biden, seated behind him, pointed to himself with his thumbs as if to say he's intimidated now by her presence, which got laughs.

"We are inspired by his service. We are also inspired by the way he has transformed his pain into power... His faith has sustained him. He is a devout Catholic. This Baptist service might be a little rambunctious for him but I saw him over there clapping."

Warnock noted that presidents Carter, Bush the younger, Clinton and Obama had all visited this church "but this is the first president, the first sitting president, to deliver the sermon on Sunday morning."

Biden will speak momentarily.

travel pool #8/Biden remarks at Ebenezer Baptist

President Biden spoke for roughly 25 minutes, ending at 12:10pm.
He read from text on the lectern, mixing religious and political messages, with lavish homage for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

As Biden and Warnock fiddled with the handheld mic, a woman shouted out "We love you President Biden!"

"I've spoken before Parliament, kings and queens, leaders all over the world. I been doing this for a long time. This is intimidating," Biden said.
"I stand here humbled" to be the first sitting president to speak at Sunday service at "Dr. King's cherished Ebenezer."

"You've been around 136 years. I know I look it, but I haven't." And he said, "I'm not a preacher."

"I have two heroes: Bobby Kennedy.... And no malarkey, Dr. King."

"He followed the path of Moses, a path of inspiration, and always always telling the people not to be afraid… and like John the Baptist he prepared us for the greater hope ahead… Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a nonviolent warrior for justice… "We come to contemplate his moral vision and commit ourselves to his path," Biden said.

The sermon turned political.
"This is a time of choosing. ... We have to choose community over chaos," he said. He mentioned "insurrection."

Until very recently, he said, Americans could take democracy for granted. But "nothing is guaranteed in our democracy."

King's mission, he said, was "to redeem the soul of America.... As the Bible teaches us, we must be doers of the word."

"The power to redeem the soul of America lies where it always lay, in the hands of we the people."

"One generation from segregation to the Supreme Court of the United States," he said, referring to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's South Lawn ceremony, struggling to pronounce her name quite right.

Much work remains, he said, on economic justice, "voting rights and protecting our democracy."

He frets, he said, that democratic institutions can collapse, "like we're seeing in Brazil and other parts of the world."
MLK's bust is on prominent display in the Oval Office, he said, because "He was my inspiration as a kid. He does know where we should go." And another bust, of Rosa Parks. "Because she just said, I've had enough. I've had enough."

King, he recalled, said "Where do we go from here? Well my message to the nation on this day is we go forward, we go together....We choose believers in dreams, to be doers."

Biden and Warnock stood side by side listening to the choir after his sermon.

travel pool #9/more church service

Service at Ebenezer Baptist ended at 12:28pm with Biden linking arms with Warnock in a line of 10 people, swaying as the choir sang "We Shall Overcome."

As Warnock welcomed new members to the church, Biden stepped off the dais and made a beeline for a girl who'd caught his eye as he spoke. He posed for a photo with her and a man who might have been her dad.

Warnock urged congregants not to be intimidated about stepping forward. "Never mind the Secret Service. They're just here to protect the president."

Biden returned to the line of church leaders at the front, and bowed his head with the congregation as Warnock offered a prayer.

Warnock exhorted anyone who shuns organized religion to give it a try anyway. "We're not that organized." And to those who say they're spiritual but don't want to be part of a spiritual community, they're misguided, because spirituality takes place within community.

And he said, "If you join the church on Martin Luther King Jr Day on the day the president of the United States came to preach, you'll never forget it."

Biden remained on the line in the front. Warnock invited him front and center and ticked off some of his achievements: The inflation reduction act, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, cap for costs of insulin.

"That, my friends, is God's work, and Georgia had a little something to do with it," Warnock said.

Biden returned to his seat for a final prayers and messages.

As the choir sparked up "We Shall Overcome," Biden was shaking hands along the front pews. He got beckoned to the front for the final fellowship and seemed to be singing along.

He continued shaking hands and posing for photos with congregants as the choir shifted into a more up-tempo, rousing version of the civil rights anthem.

Pool is about to head out.

travel pool #10/photo line

Participating in a photoline with the President at Ebenezer Baptist Church:

Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (GA)
Senator Jon Ossoff (GA)
Rep. Hank Johnson (GA-4)
Rep. Lucy McBath (GA-7)
Andre Dickens, Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia
Van Johnson, Mayor of Savannah, Georgia
Billy Mitchell, Georgia State Representative
Robb Pitts, Commission Chair of Fulton County
Michael Thurmond, Chief Executive Officer of DeKalb County
Calvin Smyre, Former Dean of the Georgia House

Pool is holding in the bus.

travel pool #11/rolling from Ebenezer

Motorcade pulled away from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta at 1:22pm.

We're headed back to the airport.

travel pool #12/Atlanta airport

Motorcade pulled to a stop at ATL at 1:38pm several hundred yards from Air Force One, alongside a long unmarked cargo building that shows up on Google Maps as an American Airlines Cargo facility.

The President went inside to tape something. Not an interview.

Pool walked to the plane and is waiting under the wing.

Travel pool #13/no tarmac gaggle

President Biden boarded Air Force One at 1:49pm without stopping to chat with the pool. His limo took all of 30 seconds to shuttle him over from the cargo facility.

Leaving Atlanta shortly. Next stop DANG.

Travel pool #14/return to DANG

Air Force One touched down at the Delaware Air National Guard base at 3:26pm. The 90 minute or so flight from Atlanta was uneventful in the rear cabin, apart from occasional outbursts as Miami caught up to and then pulled ahead of Buffalo in the AFC Wild Card game.

Travel pool #15/left DANG

The president emerged from Air Force One (smaller edition) at 3:33pm, waved to the pool and went straight for the SUV withoutbreaking stride or indicating interest in chatting. Sunny, chilly.

Rolling from DANG at 3:35.

Travel pool #16/back home and lid

President Biden was back home in Wilmington at 3:48pm after today's excursion to Atlanta.

A lid was promptly declared, even before the pool bus passed the driveway from which we still have no eyes on the famous garage.

It was an Uneventful motorcade from DANG.

Traveling with the President aboard Air Force One en route Delaware Air National Guard Base, New Castle, Delaware:

Bruce Reed, Assistant to the President & Deputy Chief of Staff
Karine Jean-Pierre, Assistant to the President & Press Secretary
Vinay Reddy, Assistant to the President & Director of Speechwriting
Ryan Montoya, Deputy Assistant to the President & Director of Scheduling & Advance
Reema Dodin, Deputy Assistant to the President & Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs & Senate
Terry Wolff, Special Assistant to the President & Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa, National Security Council
Ashley Williams, Special Assistant to the President & Deputy Director of Oval Office Operations
Carla Frank, Special Assistant to the President & Deputy Director of the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach