CNN
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President Joe Biden spent the weekend at his home in Delaware, where he met up with his wife, other family members and – if they followed usual practice – Willow the cat and Commander the dog.
It’s a familiar weekly ritual. As of this point in his presidency, Biden has spent more than a quarter of his time working from his home state of Delaware, either at his house in Wilmington or his Rehoboth Beach property.
Some 21 months into his term, Biden has made 55 visits to Delaware, totaling some or all of 174 days as of Sunday, according to a CNN analysis of presidential schedules and a tally kept by Mark Knoller, the longtime unofficial statistician of the White House press corps. In addition, Biden has made 19 visits, or all or part of 64 days, to the Camp David presidential retreat in rural Maryland.
He has now surpassed even the getaway time of former President Donald Trump, so often criticized by Democrats for his regular departures from the White House to stay at one of his personal homes. At this point in his tenure, Trump had spent about 135 days at either his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, or his home at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Trump also had spent 23 days at Camp David.
“President Biden is deeply proud of his roots and his family and it has been a staple of his time in public life to never lose touch with either,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said to CNN. “Presidents of the United States are constantly on the job, regardless of their location – whether they’re on a state visit overseas or just 100 miles from the White House for a short trip to Wilmington, DE. And as all Americans can agree, it’s important for leaders to avoid becoming ensconced in Washington, DC.”
The comforts of home can be a salve for the commander in chief while carrying out one of the world’s most demanding jobs. The American president is never truly “off,” and – in fact – Biden, like all presidents, has a whole remote White House apparatus that travels with him to facilitate that round-the-clock enterprise, with the most state-of-the-art capabilities, resources and technology traveling with him wherever he goes.
Some argue that Biden can now lean into the normalcy of working from home, which millions of Americans had to rely on when Covid-19 forced isolation from offices and public spaces. “WFH” is not just a shorthand for being productive at the home office, it’s become a professional way of life for many.
“It is 2022, not 1922. If the rest of the country can work from home, so can the president of the United States,” said Michael LaRosa, a director at a DC-based public affairs firm and former press secretary to first lady Dr. Jill Biden.
“He spent (practically) every weekend in Delaware during his 36 years in the Senate, and his eight years as vice president,” LaRosa said. “This is nothing new. The Bidens have never lived in Washington, DC.” When he was a senator, Biden commuted back to Delaware almost every night by train – earning the nickname “Amtrak Joe” – and the train station in Wilmington is named for him.
The physical presence of a president is, however, meaningful for some, at least in ritual.
The statistics – 236 days away from the White House in Delaware and Maryland in less than two years on the job – are significant for the modern presidency. The job has been set in the nation’s capital near the Congress and the Supreme Court, in part for its symbolic power, for more than 220 years. Being in that power center brings a higher level of transparency thanks to the proximity to the national media, along with White House rules about press access and public records about who comes and goes.
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