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President Joe Biden and members of the first family went for a Thanksgiving swim in the frigid waters off Nantucket Thursday.
“Annual Biden fam polar bear plunge. Happy Thanksgiving!” Naomi Biden, the president’s granddaughter, wrote in a post on the social-media platform X.
Naomi Biden included a photo that showed some members of the clan, including the president, just days removed from his 81st birthday, wrapped in towels and standing on a rocky beach after their ocean dip.
The water temperature in the Nantucket Sound was a bitter 48° Fahrenheit on Thursday afternoon.
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During President Biden’s time as vice president, the family would frequently take part in Nantucket’s annual Cold Turkey Plunge, a charity event where participants race into the icy salt water and hurry back to shore.
Joe Biden has spent nearly every Thanksgiving on the island since 1975. This year, it appears the president opted to use the waters off of billionaire David Rubenstein’s 13-acre, beachfront estate for his traditional swim.
The president and his extended family are spending six days at the hedge-fund billionaire’s mansion — the same compound where they spent the holiday in both 2021 and 2022.
The White House has not said whether the president pays to rent the $38.9 million property from Rubenstein.
Before the afternoon swim, the president and first lady Jill Biden delivered several pumpkin pies to the Nantucket Fire Department and chatted with first responders.
The president answered shouted questions from reporters about the hostage situation in Gaza and U.S. citizens imprisoned in Russia.
“I’m not prepared to give an update until it’s done,” he said of the breakthrough agreement between Hamas and Israel that could see 50 hostages being held by the terror group released early Friday.
When asked if Abigail Mor Edan, a 3-year-old Israeli-American girl being held captive in Palestinian territory, would be among those released, the commander in chief said, “I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”
Asked whether he had a message for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, Joe responded, “We ain’t giving up.”
Gershkovich has been detained on espionage charges in Russia since March, and Whelan was sentenced to 16 years of hard labor in Russian a penal colony in 2020 after his 2018 arrest on spying allegations.
The U.S. government has joined Gershkovich and Whelan in denying the charges.
A version of this report appeared at NYPost.com.
From the archives (July 2023): Biden says he’s serious about prisoner exchange for Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich
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