Biden flies commercial from Reagan National Airport and winds up stuck in delays like everyone else
WASHINGTON (AP) – A crowd gathered at the commuter gate at Reagan National Airport on Friday; Fog-laden Washington skies caused an hour-long shutdown of passengers hoping to depart from American Airlines’ Terminal D.
But as word spread through nearby gates that only one of the hundreds of air passengers arriving and departing had been escorted by a U.S. Secret Service team, along with uniformed local police officers, the already densely packed area grew even larger: former President Joe Biden.
Biden, who has rarely appeared in public since leaving office last year, was sitting, like many of his fellow passengers, waiting for the plane that would take him to Columbia, South Carolina, for an evening event with the South Carolina Democratic Party.
Passengers whispered and stared in disbelief: Why would a man who was briefly the leader of the free world be at the mercy of airport travel delays like they were, even while sitting on the security detail?
Perhaps this meant more for Biden than for some other former presidents. Biden, known for years as Amtrak Joe, prided himself on being controversial as a senator. the nation’s biggest Amtrak fanInstead of residing in Washington, he regularly takes the train home to Delaware. Now, as a former president, he has since been spotted riding the rails, taking selfies and chatting with fellow passengers.
The atmosphere was much the same on Friday, when Biden, seated in the third row of the small first-class cabin on his commuter jet, boarded the plane ahead of other passengers with his team, members of which were scattered throughout the plane.
“God bless you, sir,” a woman said as she passed Biden in her window seat with a newspaper in her lap.
“Thank you for your service,” said a man who shook Biden’s hand.
Sitting in the aisle seat next to the former president, the woman first placed her coffee on the armrest they shared, left her bag in the overhead compartment, then sat down and realized that her seatmate was the 46th president of the country.
Biden placed his hand on his glass to steady it and then said hello with his gaze as he sat down.
“I feel like I’m going to cry,” the woman said as we shook hands and chatted throughout the flight for the next hour.
Former presidents and their spouses receive lifetime Secret Service protection under federal law, but there are no provisions guaranteeing the elite level of private travel that are essential features of their time in office.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at: http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.
