NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Friday, October 7th, 2022

First Lady Jill Biden arrives in Seattle for a two-day set of events in the Pacific Northwest

The First Lady of the Unit­ed States has touched down in the Pacif­ic Northwest!

Dr. Jill Biden’s C‑32 Air Force trans­port land­ed at 2:46 PM Pacif­ic Time at King Coun­ty Inter­na­tion­al Air­port after an unevent­ful flight from California.

C-32 transport carrying First Lady Jill BIden

A C‑32 VIP trans­port oper­at­ed by the Unit­ed States Air Force brought First Lady Jill Biden to the Seat­tle area (Pho­to: Seth Boun/NPI)

The First Lady was greet­ed by Seat­tle May­or Bruce Har­rell, King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine, Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee, and oth­er dignitaries.

Jill Biden's October 2022 Seattle greeters take a photo

Jill Biden’s Octo­ber 2022 Seat­tle greeters take a pho­to (Pho­to: Seth Boun/NPI)

Dr. Biden is in the region to tour Bates Tech­ni­cal Col­lege in Taco­ma, speak at a fundrais­er for Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray’s reelec­tion cam­paign, and par­tic­i­pate in a Hid­den Helpers Coali­tion Event with the Eliz­a­beth Dole Foun­da­tion and Wound­ed War­rior Project at the Pacif­ic Sci­ence Center.

This last event is part of the White House’s Join­ing Forces ini­tia­tive and will cel­e­brate chil­dren in mil­i­tary and vet­er­an care­giv­ing fam­i­lies. Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray, Sec­re­tary of the U.S. Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs Denis McDo­nough, and CEO of the Eliz­a­beth Dole Foun­da­tion Steve Schwab will also be there.

On behalf of the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute, Seth and I joined oth­er media rep­re­sen­ta­tives at Boe­ing Field to observe the brief arrival ceremonies.

I reached the air­port over an hour before the First Lady’s touch­down and checked in with White House Secu­ri­ty and the Secret Ser­vice. As I drove up I could see bomb-sniff­ing dogs being lift­ed into near­by dump­sters to check for threats.

After being screened, I was escort­ed to the coned off press area on the tar­mac. Reporters from many Seat­tle-based news orga­ni­za­tions had set up cam­eras on tri-pods and micro­phones as they await­ed Dr. Biden’s arrival.

In the unusu­al­ly warm and hazy Seat­tle after­noon, secu­ri­ty vehi­cles crossed the tar­mac and secu­ri­ty per­son­nel paced in and out of a near­by hangar as every­one pre­pared for the First Lady’s immi­nent landing.

First Lady Jill Biden steps off her transport to begin a multi-day stop in the Pacific Northwest

First Lady Jill Biden steps off her trans­port to begin a mul­ti-day stop in the Pacif­ic North­west (Pho­to: Seth Boun/NPI)

At 2:35 PM, every­one turned their cam­era towards the sky behind the press pool as the C‑32 descend­ed. After eleven min­utes, the plane fin­ished taxi­ing and parked a mere one hun­dred meters from the press pool.

As the plane came to a stop, the First Lady’s motor­cade of black SUVs and press vans pulled up and await­ed Dr. Biden’s departure.

Sev­er­al min­utes lat­er, May­or Har­rell and oth­er local dig­ni­taries moved to the bot­tom of the airstairs to greet the First Lady. Dr. Biden descend­ed the airstairs at 2:55 PM, speak­ing with May­or Har­rell and the oth­er offi­cials before tak­ing photos.

First Lady Jill Biden speaks with her October 2022 Seattle greeters

First Lady Jill Biden speaks with her Octo­ber 2022 Seat­tle greeters (Pho­to: Seth Boun/NPI)

By 3:06 PM, the First Lady, her staff, and the trav­el­ing press had loaded into the motor­cade, and by 3:08 PM the last vehi­cles in the con­voy were leav­ing the air­port. By 3:16 PM, the press rep­re­sen­ta­tives had packed up and were escort­ed from the tar­mac through a pri­vate hang­er. The well-exe­cut­ed dis­em­bark­ment, with every staffer and reporter know­ing where to go, sug­gest­ed a smooth begin­ning to this leg of Dr. Biden’s trip to the West Coast.

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