NEW ORLEANS — The White House announced Friday morning that President Biden will visit New Orleans this upcoming Tuesday. It has been three years since his last visit. This time, there will be more security following last month’s attempted assassination of former President Trump.
The announcement included very few details about the visit, besides noting that the President will highlight his Cancer Moonshot initiative, which aims to cut cancer rates in half by 2047.
Rep. Troy Carter will be involved in the visit. He told WWL Louisiana Friday that he is “very excited that the President has chosen to come back.” He called the visit a “doubling down” of the President’s fight against cancer and praised him for “putting the full faith and credit of the United States behind ending a real, tragic, and dreaded disease.”
Last year, Rep. Carter and Sen. Bill Cassidy joined First Lady Jill Biden on a tour of the Louisiana Cancer Research Center on Tulane Avenue. “New Orleans and Louisiana have been a focal point in recognizing the investment that's been made and the great work that's being done,” said Rep. Carter.
The President himself last visited New Orleans in May of 2021. He toured the Carrollton Water Plant as part of a push to highlight aging infrastructure in the U.S.
At a post-visit press conference, he remarked that if the city did not “get it fixed, New Orleans is in real trouble.” Ironically, he will be arriving for his next visit a week after a power outage triggered a near-citywide boil water advisory.
The White House did not say where in the city specifically the President would go Tuesday. What is certain, though, is that there will be traffic to navigate during the visit, perhaps more than last time.
A representative from the Secret Service told WWL Louisiana that since the July 13 shooting at a rally for former President Trump, it has “elevated the protective posture of all our protectees and bolstered our protective details.” They warned to expect “intermittent road closures and parking restrictions.”
This is the second White House visit to New Orleans this summer. In July, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at Essence Fest.
