President Joe Biden criss-crossed Rome in a presidential motorcade that ran to 85 cars – to kick off a trip that will conclude with a climate summit in Glasgow.
The president always travels with a sizable contingent of aides, military officials, and medical officials.
But this time, his retinue was padded even further for his audience with Pope Francis – his fourth. While in Rome, an old city with many narrow roads, Biden’s motorcade was extended by Italian COVID-19 restrictions which limit passengers to four people per vehicle.
Biden travels in ‘the Beast’ almost wherever he goes, and his motorcade typically includes a second fully armored presidential limo. It also includes special communications vehicles, an ambulance, police escorts, and vehicles containing armed agents – along with vans carrying photographers and press who shadow the president wherever he travels.
An audience with the pope is one that aides clamor to join in every administration, and Biden’s was no exception.
