Pool Reports of January 29, 2022

pool report #1/schedule update

Call time for the pool has been pushed back, from noon to 4 p.m.

There is nothing on the president's public schedule today.

Pool report #2/another schedule update

Call time for the POTUS pool is now 4:50. Had been noon. Then 4p.

Nothing on the presidential schedule.

The first lady and second gentleman just arrived in the East Room to assemble care packages for National Guard with spouses of governors and senior military leaders.

Pool report #3/POTUS in the East Room

The President arrived in the East Room at 3:20 pm as the first lady and dozens of spouses of governors were just about done assembling 1,000 care packages for Operation Gratitude. (See FLOTUS pool reports.)

This was not on the president's schedule.

"I wish you were all here having lunch," the President told the first spouses from the around the country, in a nod to Covid precautions.

"When Beau was in Iraq for a year he said it was a really big deal when he would get these packages. .. Thanks for all you're doing," the President said.

He chatted with the first lady of the US Virgin Islands.

"For years and years Jill and I would rent a place in the Virgin Islands. Right on a cove and you never had to leave," he said.

Jill Biden then assembled the spouses for a group photo as her husband continued to shmooze.

Jill Biden: "Should we do this with Joe or without Joe?" She called him over to join the group photo.

"The good news is, you have masks on, you can deny you've been here," POTUS joked after the photo.

Pool ushered out at 3:30. The Bidens are still chatting with gov spouses.

pool report #4/pool gathering

The POTUS pool will gather at 5pm.

There is nothing on the president's schedule, and the destination is not announced.

Church is an informed guess.

When the president was chatting with spouses of governors in the East Room, pretty sure it was the wife of the US Virgin Islands governor who said something to him about going to church and he half-jokingly invited her to come with him this afternoon to "Trinity." He might have said Holy Trinity. And as we know, he often worships at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown.

Pool report #5/motorcade rolling

The presidential motorcade rolled at 5:25 pm from the South Lawn. The president walked out from the vicinity of the Oval Office -- from our vantage at the awning that's all I can say for sure -- and boarded his SUV.

Heading west on E St. under a clear sky turning pink around the edges as dusk falls.

Pool report #6/arrival at church

The president has arrived at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown after an uneventful motorcade. We stopped for a long red light at the Key Bridge after coming off the Whitehurst Freeway.

A few onlookers along M St.

A couple of women taking a walk a couple blocks from the destination broke into a jog when they realized what was driving past -- trying, unsuccessfully, to keep up as we turned onto 36th Street.

POTUS walked into the church at 5:37. Pool has retreated to the vans during the 45 minute service in recognition that it is really, really cold out.

Pool report #7/leaving church

The president walked out of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown at 6:23 pm and headed straight into his SUV. He ignored or didn't hear a question shouted from a distance about Ukraine.

It's 25 degrees with a wind chill that feels like 9 degrees.

Motorcade rolling.

Pool report #8/back at White House and lid

After kicking up a cloud of road salt speeding across M St on Wisconsin, the presidential motorcade made its way back to the White House, this time on the street below the Whitehurst Freeway.

President Biden was back at the White House at 6:35 pm. His SUV parked at the residence. Didn't see him go in, but he's not out here, so no doubt he did.

We have a lid.