President Joe Biden arrived in Los Angeles Wednesday on a West Coast trip that comes with just weeks to go before nationwide midterm elections that could re-shape Congress.
Biden arrived at LAX after a stop in Colorado, where he was to designate the first national monument of his administration. Camp Hale is an alpine training site where U.S. soldiers prepared for battles in the Italian Alps during World War II.
In Southern California, Biden will participate in a campaign event focused on the nation's infrastructure and a Thursday fundraiser for House Democrats. Deadline reported that the fundraiser is in Brentwood, but it was not immediately clear who organized the event.
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He stopped with his motorcade for lunch Thursday at Tacos 1986 in Westwood.
Biden will be in Orange County Friday, where he will deliver a talk about "lower costs for American families," the White House said. Details about the discussion were not immediately available.
“We've been very clear that the president is going to go out, the vice president is going to go out,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. “They're going to talk about the successes that we have seen in this administration in the last 19 months.”
The visit comes at a time when early voting for the Nov. 8 election is already underway in California, where every registered voters is sent a mail-in ballot, and a firestorm surrounds the Los Angeles City Council. On Tuesday, Biden joined a long list of national, state and local leaders calling for the resignations of three Los Angeles City Councilmembers over a recorded conversation about redistricting that included racist remarks about the 2-year-old adopted Black son of a colleague.
On Wednesday, Nury Martinez, who earlier resigned from the position of council president, announced she is stepping down from her council seat. The announcement came after days of protests and public pressure.
Biden last visited os Angeles in June when he was a host for the Summit of the Americas. He also spoke at two Democratic National Committee fundraisers during that visit.
Biden will leave Southern California Friday to visit Oregon, where that state's Democratic governor faces a challenge from an unaffiliated candidate.
