Pirate's Cove

Now, imagine the apoplexy from CNN and the rest of the Credentialed Media if this was about Trump

For Biden, the White House is ‘a Monday-through-Friday kind of place’

Beginning in 1973, when he was a United States Senator from Delaware, Joe Biden had a ritual: nearly every evening he would hop a train back to Wilmington after his work day on Capitol Hill, spending most nights and weekends at the place he considered home, 100 miles from Washington.

Doing so earned him the nickname “Amtrak Joe,” and in 2011, the Wilmington depot was renamed the Joseph R. Biden Jr. Railroad Station. In all, he took more than 8,000 of those roundtrips during his 36 years in the Senate and, though less frequently, his eight years as vice president, no small feat for a busy politician.

Turns out old habits die hard.

Since taking office four months ago, the President has spent more weekends away from the White House than he has stayed there, almost three times as many. Counting this Memorial Day weekend, Biden has been in Wilmington nine weekends and passed five weekends at the presidential retreat, Camp David, in rural Maryland. The numbers far exceed any modern president’s weekends off-campus at this point in his tenure.

But, see, Joe’s not playing golf, so, everything is OK. No mention that he takes fossil fueled helicopter flights now while wanting to force Americans onto trains and richer folks into electric vehicles.

“He thinks of (the White House) more like a Monday-through-Friday kind of place,” said one of several people familiar with Biden’s thinking who spoke to CNN for this story and were granted anonymity in order to preserve relationships. This person said the people’s house was akin to presidential corporate housing. “Really, really high-end corporate housing.”

“Joe Biden has always been the guy who goes home to Delaware,” said another person who has worked with the President. “The White House isn’t going to change that.”

Really, I have no problem with that. If he wants to hang at home, that’s fine. It’s understandable. Especially at Joe’s age and his mental issues, he wants to be around the familiar. I do have a problem with the media being fine with this, when they would be blasting Trump, and did blast him constantly for the times he left the White House.

Despite its 54,900 square feet, bowling alley, movie theater, tennis pavilion, acres of grounds and dozens of staff, Biden’s instinct — sometimes last-minute, say those familiar with his schedule — is to get away from it for a weekly breather. One person said it’s the escapism aspect of getting away from “the office” that drives him to seek another location.

Um, he did run for this position, just like he did for Vice President.

Part of the issue is that Biden is quite simply no longer “Amtrak Joe,” and that moving the President of the United States from point A to point B requires dozens of people, military precision planning and the coordination of law enforcement, from the Secret Service to local police officers. Tension is building between White House staff tasked with delivering the news of a weekend away and the logistical apparatus that allows it, said another person familiar with operations.

Well, they should have plenty of time to plan, since they are typically calling lids on Joe doing anything early in the day.

The residence is, however, the symbolic pinnacle of political achievement, which begs the question why he would rather not have been there for 14 of the 19 weekends he has been president.

More recently, Donald Trump would get away at his private Palm Beach, Florida, club, taking about eight leisure weekends from the White House by the same point in his presidency that Biden is at now. Barack Obama was an early fan of weekends with his family at Camp David, going approximately a half-dozen times in his first four months in office.

Now remember how the media treated Trump, who took 6 fewer weekend trips. Anyhow, the rest of the article makes excuses for Biden.