WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 It's President Joe Biden's refuge from Washington 鈥 a place that's part home office, part Sunday family dinner venue, a safe place for his treasured 1967 Corvette and a makeshift campaign studio during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware, is coming under fresh scrutiny as a repository of classified material.
The White House confirmed Thursday that classified records were found in the garage of Biden's Wilmington home, as well as an adjacent room that the president later identified as his personal library. The disclosure came said similarly classified materials were located at Biden's former institute in Washington. The discoveries, taken together, to oversee the matter.
The announcement shines a brighter spotlight on Biden's Wilmington house, the weekends and where he finds more freedom and a homier atmosphere than at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
鈥淚 said when I was running, I wanted to be president 鈥 not to live in the White House, but to be able to make the decisions about the future of the country,鈥 Biden said in February 2021, just after he took office. Living in the White House, he said, is 鈥渁 little like a gilded cage in terms of being able to walk outside and do things."
So far in his presidency, Biden has spent part or all of 194 days in his home state of Delaware, spending most weekends in either at his Wilmington home or in Rehoboth Beach, where he owns according to an Associated Press tally. He will head to Wilmington again this weekend.
Despite an onslaught of criticism, particularly from Republicans, for regularly escaping to the state, White House officials say the time spent in Wilmington is important for a president who traveled home nightly during the 36 years he served as senator. Biden also can stand up presidential operations at home, where he regularly meets with advisers, and an aide from the 春色直播 Security Council travels with the president during Wilmington weekends.
鈥淓very president can work from anywhere they are, because that is how presidencies are equipped,鈥 former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in February 2022, as and Biden was preparing for another weekend in Wilmington. She confirmed that Biden can make secure calls from 鈥渁nywhere he is, yes.鈥
Biden's custom-built Wilmington home, finished in 1998, is located in the tony Greenville section of the town and abuts a lake in a neighborhood where residents are now used to Secret Service vehicles and flashing motorcade lights. It's a brief drive to , and a branch of the upscale grocery store Wegman's opened nearby in recent months.
The home is also a culmination of Biden's decades-long quest to establish the perfect family home and his self-admitted obsession with real estate. Over the years, he would purchase several homes in Delaware and later sell them at a profit.
鈥淛oe has a very symmetrical eye, and if he had a million dollars he wouldn't be traveling, he would be putting it into his house,鈥 his sister, Valerie Biden Owens, said in journalist Jules Witcover's biography of the president. The book, 鈥淛oe Biden: A Life of Trial and Redemption,鈥 described him as an 鈥渁dmittedly frustrated architect.鈥
So meaningful is the home to the Bidens that when the former vice president floated the prospect of a second mortgage to pay for his ailing son Beau's expenses, then-President Barack Obama flatly refused 鈥渨ith a force that surprised me,鈥 Biden wrote in his 2017 memoir, 鈥淧romise Me, Dad.鈥
鈥淚'll give you the money,鈥 Obama said, in Biden's retelling. 鈥淚 have it. You can pay me back whenever.鈥
has also written fondly about the home, describing its sunroom 鈥 covered in family mementos, campaign paraphernalia and artwork 鈥 as 鈥渙ne of my favorite places in the world.鈥
鈥淭he small room overlooks the lake behind our house, and I like to sit with my feet tucked up on the sofa, wrapped in a pashmina, grading papers there from my classes at Northern Virginia Community College, where I鈥檝e taught English and writing for the last eleven years,鈥 she wrote in her memoir, 鈥淲here the Light Enters.鈥 "It鈥檚 a room made for homeyness and comfort.鈥
This haven for the Bidens quickly morphed into his de facto campaign headquarters in March 2020, when Americans were suddenly homebound with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and for virtual roundtables and Zoom fundraisers. Biden would keep up the at-home campaigning much longer than his opponent, Donald Trump, and prompting mockery from Republicans that Biden was tethered to his basement.
But it also allowed for an unusual glimpse into the personal home of the Bidens, as he fielded questions sitting in front of shelves stuffed with books and posted Instagram photos of him and Jill in their kitchen.
In May 2020, Biden was speaking to the Asian American and Pacific Islanders Victory Fund from home when he was repeatedly drowned out by squawking geese.
鈥淭here's a pond on the other side of my property,鈥 Biden remarked. 鈥淎 lot of 春色直播 geese. If you hear them honking away, they're cheering.鈥
The White House was pressed this week to disclose a visitors' log to Biden's personal home, but it's unclear whether one even exists. Aside from family members and close advisers, there is little public knowledge about who comes in and out of Biden's home, particularly when he is handling presidential business.
One exception was Sen. Joe Manchin.
In October 2021, Biden personally invited the influential West Virginia Democrat, as well as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, to his home for breakfast and a tour of the property 鈥 a move seen as a deeply personal gesture from a president struggling to court Manchin on the Democrats' massive social spending package that fall. two months later, and a furious White House responded that Manchin made a commitment to Biden 鈥渁t his home in Wilmington," portraying the senator's announcement as a personal betrayal.
Now Biden's home is again becoming a bit player in a political headache for the White House.
Garland said Thursday that the Justice Department was told Dec. 20 by Biden's personal lawyer that classified material was found in the president's Wilmington garage. Further, DOJ was notified Thursday that another record with classified markings was found elsewhere in the Wilmington home.
Asked about the disclosures Thursday, Biden kept his comments relatively brief, saying he will speak more on this 鈥渟oon鈥 and that he .
But Biden also wanted to make one thing about his house explicitly clear.
鈥淏y the way, my Corvette's in a locked garage, OK?鈥 he said. 鈥淪o it's not like it's sitting out in the street.鈥
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Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.
