■ President Biden thanked the vaccinated and the military in a public lead-up to the holiday weekend.

President thanks military on start of Memorial Day weekend

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — President Joe Biden started the Memorial Day weekend by visiting a rock climbing gym in northern Virginia as the state lifted all COVID-19 distancing and capacity restrictions at private businesses and much of the nation pushes toward a greater sense of normalcy.

Biden sought to use the stop on Friday at Sportrock Climbing Centers to celebrate progress made as the country looks to turn the corner on the coronavirus pandemic.

The president, who later paid tribute to the armed forces with an address at an Air Force base elsewhere in Virginia, used the day to thank Americans who have already received vaccinations — about 51 percent of Americans are now fully vaccinated — and again urged Americans who haven’t to get their shot.

“All over the country we’ve gone from pain and stagnation of a long dark winter to an economy on the move,” Biden said. He added, “Americans of every party, race, creed have come together and rolled up their sleeves — literally — and done their part.”

This year, the long holiday weekend that marks the unofficial start to summer comes at a moment when the federal government and state governments are relaxing masking and social distancing rules.

The visit came as Biden is pressing Republican lawmakers to back a massive infrastructure bill.

“The American people are more ready to come together, I believe, than the Congress and the elected people,”

Biden said.

Biden later traveled to Joint Base Langley Eustis, in the state’s Tidewater region, to thank U.S. troops for their service. After beginning with a remembrance of his late son Beau, a veteran, Biden acknowledged the unheralded sacrifices made by the service members and their families.

“You are the very best of what America has to offer,” Biden said.

Biden also underscored his recent decision to pull troops out of Afghanistan later this year, expressing gratitude to service members who took multiple tours of duty in America’s longest war.

“My message for you is simple: Thank you,” the president said, adding that they were “1 percent of the population defending 99 percent of the rest of us. You’re incredible.”