WASHINGTON — Last weekend, before his second trip abroad since taking office, President Joe Biden had to prepare for foreign leader meetings and wanted to do it from the comfort of his family home. But he had problems brewing in Washington, where his legislative priorities are struggling for passage.
Instead of staying at the White House, where he usually meets with lawmakers, Biden summoned two Democratic senators to his house in Wilmington, Delaware, in an effort to get his domestic agenda moving through Congress.
Biden’s routine trips to his personal residence underscore the difficulty he has had adjusting to life in the executive mansion, where he has little privacy and has acknowledged feeling not quite at home. He has traveled to Delaware 25 times since taking office in January, all but two of the trips were to spend time at home.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that as a former Delaware senator, Biden has “deep roots and he feels a deep connection with the community” in the state he represented for more than three decades.
“That’s also where he sees family, many of whom live around there, and that’s always something that’s centering and good for anybody who is in a job like of course being President of the United States,” Psaki added.
Rarely alone and under constant security as president, Biden has indicated he feels unsettled in the White House. He has lamented that he no longer feels at ease getting himself breakfast or walking about his living quarters in a bathrobe.
He often spends weekends at his personal residence in Wilmington and out of the public eye, except for going to church, and in warmer weather, dining or playing golf.
Biden’s breakfast meeting last weekend with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia was unique. Psaki tied it to the president’s desire to be in Delaware before spending extended time away on an overseas trip.
Manchin said that Biden was “much more comfortable” in that setting. “You’re always comfortable at home,” he added.
Biden commuted to work in Washington for 36 years as a senator on the train and was often able to make it home to Wilmington in time for family supper.
These days, shuttling between the White House and Wilmington typically involves a military helicopter, a fleet of vehicles and sometimes a short ride on Air Force One.
When he was vice president, Biden lived near the Naval Observatory in Washington, in the official residence that is set back from the road and away from prying eyes. He returned to Delaware regularly and then lived in Wilmington full time during the four years he was out of elected office.
Living in the three-story home for vice presidents was different, Biden said at a July town hall on CNN.
“It was totally different. You can walk out in your shorts with a short-sleeve shirt on and you can walk around and there wasn’t anybody there,” Biden said. “You can’t walk out anywhere now.”
Biden is not alone among modern U.S. presidents in establishing a place of refuge. George W. Bush spent the month of August at his Texas ranch during his first year in office. Barack Obama vacationed in Martha’s Vineyard. Donald Trump escaped on weekends to private golf clubs he owned in New Jersey, Florida and Virginia.
“You’ve got to get out of the White House. You’re in a really strange bubble and people will grab your time,” said Paulette Aniskoff, a partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive who was director of the Office of Public Engagement in the Obama White House. “Look at the gray hair that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama had when they left. It’s pretty hard on you.”
During the CNN town hall, Biden said candidly that he was having trouble adapting to life at the White House. “It’s a wonderful honor,” he said. “And the Secret Service is wonderful.”
But, he added, “It is very hard to get comfortable like I would ordinarily be.” Biden said he would tell staff, “‘Don’t come in for breakfast, we can get our own breakfast.’ Because I like to walk out in my robe and go in.”
Democrats say that frankness is one of the qualities that makes Biden a likeable politician.
“He’s saying things that everybody is thinking, and it just humanizes him more and makes them relatable,” said Adrienne Elrod, who was a senior aide to Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. He’s not trying to, at 78 years old, be somebody who he is not.”
Biden will be guarded by the Secret Service for the rest of his life, unless he declines protection after leaving office.
“When you’ve got Secret Service around you 100% of the time,” said Rep. Jim Clyburn, “that can be an uncomfortable feeling. You are not free to move.”
“I suspect that all of that can be unnerving, and uncomfortable and inconvenient. All those things go with it,” said Clyburn, the House Majority Whip and a close ally of Biden in Congress.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, who had Secret Service protection as a 2016 vice presidential nominee, said having constant security and an ever-present entourage “would be one of the hardest parts of the job.”
“President Obama said the same thing to me. He liked going for a walk around the block with Michelle or going to a restaurant without having to clear the place out,” Kaine said. “That’s probably one of the hardest things to get used to.”
Biden’s attempts at downtime at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, and at his Delaware homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, have sometimes come under scrutiny. Biden traveled from Delaware to Camp David to the White House and back to Camp David in the midst of the Afghanistan crisis.
“Every president needs a little bit of time away, but events have a way of intruding,” said Karl Rove, former deputy chief of staff to George W. Bush.
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