President Obama Arrives In Bay Area For Weekend Democratic Fundraisers
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative Anna Eshoo, along with a crowd of supporters, welcomed President Barack Obama to the Bay Area as he stepped off Air Force One at San Francisco International Airport Friday afternoon.
Air Force One touched down at 3:32 p.m. amid sunny skies and strong winds. A layer of fog could be seen seeping in over the San Bruno mountains.
Security officers on the rooftops of surrounding buildings monitored the runway as Air Force One made its descent.
The president, who flew in from Southern California after attending a DNC reception and dinner in Los Angeles, walked across the tarmac to the waiting crowd and shook hands, hugged and greeted the waiting crowd.
Obama picked up and briefly held 6-month-old Anton Rozeboom, the son of two Democrats who supported Obama at the Iowa Caucus.
Grant and Leah Rozeboom said they were living in Iowa when Obama was just a presidential hopeful.
The pair moved out to the Bay Area six years ago. This was the first time that the pair had met the President and as for Anton, "It's his first time in the last six months" that he's met with the President, his father Grant Rozeboom said.
After taking photos with the crowd, the President stepped inside a black Cadillac and was escorted from the airport in a motorcade of two dozens vehicles including San Francisco police and the California Highway Patrol.
Obama arrived at the Intercontinental Hotel in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood at 4:07 p.m.
He will head to the W Hotel in San Francisco later to join about 200 supporters at the DNC reception.
The sold-out event, with musical guest Maxwell, had tickets starting at $500, according to an invitation on the DNC's website.
Protesters were set to greet Obama at the W Hotel around 4 p.m.
Organizations that disapprove of Obama's foreign policy decisions in the Middle East, such as World Can't Wait, Code Pink and the ANSWER Coalition gathered outside the DNC reception to express their disapproval of the president's decision to order air strikes in Syria and other acts they see as needless aggression by the United States.
"The U.S. military cannot do anything to stop the violence of ISIS," Stephanie Tang, a member of World Can't Wait said Friday.
World Can't Wait organizers said in a statement that they object to the administration's "continuous support and funding of the Israeli government's siege on Gaza!" and Obama's use of drones across the Middle East.
Richard Becker, the West Coast coordinator for the ANSWER Coalition, said today that while he thinks ISIS is "despicable," U.S. military involvement would only further exacerbate the fighting in Syria.
"We don't want another endless war in the Middle East," Becker said.
In talks this week with top Turkish government officials, top U.S. officials stressed that strengthening the moderate Syrian opposition, engaged in fighting both ISIS and the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, "is crucial to any realistic and lasting political settlement of the Syrian crisis," according to the U.S. Department of State.
On Saturday, Obama will attend a DNC roundtable at San Francisco City Hall with about 25 supporters contributing up to $32,400, according to DNC officials.
The President will head back home on Air Force One at 11:20 a.m. on Saturday, SFO public information officer Doug Yakel said.
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