President Joe Biden is visiting Charleston, South Carolina, on Sunday for his final trip in office to speak at a church service ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day — and President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Biden boarded Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews a short time ago, traveling with first lady Jill Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. His daughter, Ashley Biden, also appears to be aboard the plane, according to a post on Instagram.
At the service later today at Royal Missionary Baptist Church, Biden will talk about “Dr. King’s legacy and the continued fight to make Dr. King’s dream a reality,” a White House official said. The president will also visit the International African American Museum, where he and the first lady will deliver remarks.
The state of South Carolina was central to Biden’s political revival in 2020. While he considers Delaware home and Pennsylvania his birthplace, South Carolina is deeply ingrained in his political and personal history.
After crushing defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire in the opening Democratic contests of the 2020 campaign, Biden turned to South Carolina for his political resurrection, drawing on support from Black voters in the state to overwhelmingly win his first primary. That victory set him on an electoral path to barrel through the Super Tuesday states and eventually capture the Democratic nomination.
The Biden family also often turned to South Carolina for respite and comfort, vacationing in the coastal areas for several decades, including one family gathering in Kiawah Island just weeks after Biden’s son Beau died in 2015.
CNN’s Betsy Klein contributed to this report.
This post has been updated to reflect Biden’s departure.
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