According to media reports, former President Biden and former first lady Jill Biden are spending their first days after leaving the White House in Santa Barbara County.
The Bidens traveled to a private home in Santa Ynez after attending President Trump's inauguration in the packed Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Monday, NBC News first reported.
The setting is significant — the couple sought respite there after Biden decided not to run for re-election and endorsed then-Vice President Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
The Bidens are staying in Santa Ynez, where Democratic donor Joe Kiana has a working organic vineyard.
(Laura Nelson/Los Angeles Times)
The Bidens and several of their family members then spent several days on a sprawling vineyard belonging to major Democratic donor Joe Kiani, the billionaire founder of the medical technology company Masimo in Irvine. His rural property at the foot of the San Rafael Mountains is surrounded by paddocks and gnarled oak trees.
Harris also traveled to California, her home state, after Trump's inauguration. The former U.S. Senator, Attorney General and San Francisco District Attorney and her husband Doug Emhoff left Washington, D.C., landed in Burbank and immediately visited volunteers and firefighters who were helping victims of the Eaton Fire in Altadena.
President Trump, in his first trip outside of Washington, DC since taking office, said he plans to survey wildfire damage in the Los Angeles area later this week. He also said some federal aid could be tied to changes in state water policy.