President Joe Biden plans to escape Washington for the weekend and head to his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware home as the crisis continues in the Middle East and chaos over House speakership has left Congress unable to help.

In the Middle East, Israel is readying a ground invasion of Gaza, while U.S. troops have been targeted in Iraq and Syria, all the while the clock is ticking to get more U.S. hostages back as the first two were relaesed. 

On Capitol Hill, Rep. Jim Jordan’s third try for the speakership failed, prompting even more uncertainty about when the House GOP would elect a new speaker.  

The 80-year-old president is coming off a whirlwind trip to Israel Wednesday where he spent seven hours on the ground, meeting with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and those directly impacted by Hamas’ horrific October 7 terror attack. 

The second half of the Middle East trek was cancelled after a rocket hit a hospital in Gaza, prompting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to skip a planned gathering in Amman, Jordan with Biden, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

President Joe Biden (left) and first lady Jill Biden (right) return to their Rehoboth Beach, Delaware home this weekend. They’re photographed reading and taking a nap on the beach during a trip to the shore in August 

President Joe Biden often takes bike rides when he and first lady Jill Biden spend time at their $2.74 million Rehoboth Beach, Delaware home  

Instead the leaders spoke by phone as Biden jetted back to the United States. 

The president then delivered an address Thursday night in the Oval Office – only his second time using the historic venue to give a speech – to make the case to Americans that the U.S. needed to fund both Ukraine’s and Israel’s war efforts. 

While Russian President Vladimir Putin and the terror group Hamas, responsible for the October 7 terror attack in Israel ‘represent different threats’ they share a common goal, Biden said.

‘They both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy,’ he said. 

‘We cannot and will not let terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like Putin win,’ the president argued. 

On Friday, prior to heading to the beach, Biden entertained the European Union’s leaders, President Charles Michel of the European Council and President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission.

von der Leyen praised Biden for making the trip to Israel Wednesday.  

The Bidens own a $2.74 million vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where the president and first lady will spend the weekend amid the crisis in the Middle East – and a chaotic speakership race on Capitol Hill 

President Joe Biden (right) walks on the sand in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with three of his grandchildren and his daughter Ashley 

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‘I want to thank you for your remarkable visit to Israel. It is important to show solidarity with Israel, [the] victim of the worst attack since the Shoah,’ she said, using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust. 

von der Leyen has also visited Israel since the October 7 terror attack.

‘What I saw was barbasic,’ she recounted. ‘The impact on the Israeli society cannot be emphasized enough.’

She also called it ‘crucial’ to extend humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza. 

By mid-afternoon Friday, news broke that two American hostages kidnapped by Hamas and dragged into Gaza during the October 7 attack would be released. 

‘Our fellow citizens have endured a terrible ordeal these past 14 days, and I am overjoyed that they will soon be reunited with their family, who has been wracked with fear,’ the president said in a statement. 

‘From the earliest moments of this attack, we have been working around-the-clock to free American citizens who were taken hostage by Hamas, and we have not ceased our efforts to secure the release of those who are still being held,’ Biden also said. 

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip on Friday amid the current crisis in the Middle East, after the terror group Hamas attacked Israeli civilian in an attack on October 7 that killed 1,300 

On Friday, President Joe Biden met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (left) and European Council President Charles Michel (second from left) 

Rep. Jim Jordan lost his third vote to become speaker of the House Friday, with no obvious end of the chaos overwhelming Capitol Hill in sight 

Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, the search for a new House speaker remained up in the air after Republican Rep. Jim Jordan’s bid failed again on a third floor vote.

Biden will participate in a political fundraiser in the Washington, D.C. area early Friday evening before heading to the Delaware shore.  

During trips to Rehoboth, the president and first lady Jill Biden often read on the beach or go biking near their $2.74 million beach home. 

Republicans were already readying criticism for his escape. 

‘Biden takes no questions as his handlers force the press out of the room. Later today, Biden is heading to the beach,’ the RNC Research account posted to X, showing footage of Biden in his meeting with European leaders.