Biden tells DC school kids it’s hard to return after ‘not doing any work’

WASHINGTON — President Biden told middle school students on their first day of classes Monday that he understands it’s hard to return after “not doing any work” — after he received Republican criticism for spending most of the past month on vacation.

“I tell you what, the hardest thing, I think, is when you come back — what’s the matter, baby? You look at me like, ‘I don’t want to be in this math class’?” Biden told students at Eliot-Hine Middle School on Capitol Hill, breaking off to call out one young scholar.

“The hardest thing,” the president resumed, “is to come back after three months of not doing any work, not doing any homework, and all of a sudden you got a lot to make — everybody has a lot to catch up from the end of last year.”

The 80-year-old president received a mixed reception at the school, with one teenage girl excitedly shaking his hand and exclaiming, “I’m going to be famous!”

Another student sitting in the front row was less enthusiastic, pulling their sweatshirt hood over their head and appearing to nap during Biden’s remarks.

The pupil remained in that position until Biden walked around the room shaking hands and wiggled his fingers in front of their face to wake them.

He whispered something to the sleepy student, whose gender was not clear to reporters, and seemed to tap their cheek before moving around the room.

Biden returned Saturday from a weeklong vacation at Lake Tahoe in Nevada at the waterfront mansion of billionaire Tom Steyer.

Before his Lake Tahoe trip — from which he took a daytrip Aug. 21 to tour wildfire damage on Maui — Biden enjoyed R&R at both his Delaware homes — staying at his Rehoboth Beach house and Wilmington residence from July 28 through Aug. 7, then returning to Rehoboth Aug. 11-14.

The president is scheduled to head to the shore once again on Friday for a long Labor Day weekend.