Did Biden Wait Too Long To Visit Texas?
Many have criticized President Biden for waiting to long to visit Texas in the wake of the winter storms. But has he? We review the data for recent presidential behaviors and visiting disasters.
The Background
The executive branch has been taking visible action with disasters since 1927 when Coolidge dispatched Herbert Hoover, then commerce secretary, to help with the Mississippi flooding. Presidents have been expected to visit disaster areas since President Richard M. Nixon visited Mississippi in the wake of Hurricane Camille. But how long do presidents usually take to visit disaster areas? We find out.
The Methodology
We reviewed how long from disaster to visit for each mentioned president’s visits to disaster areas that took place in their administration. We then took the average and noted this number for each president then took the average of all presidents. We felt that, due the unpredictable and unplanned nature of disasters, we did not want to average every disaster as this may skew results towards a specific president if they happened to have a large number of disasters during their administration.
The Data & Results
We reviewed the data for presidents Clinton, Obama & Trump to determine each of their averages. Clinton averaged a 12 day delay, Obama a 14 days delay, Trump a 5 day delay and Biden, with his first visit, 9 days. The average for Clinton, Obama and Trump was 5 – averaging to 10 days. Biden visited 9 days later. Considering this Biden performed reasonably at the average. He was not late.
