The White House defended its decision to withhold visitor log records for President Joe Biden’s Delaware residences as tallies show the president logging a quarter of his first year in office in his home state.
“The president goes to Delaware because it’s his home,” press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday, adding that this is where Biden’s son, first wife, and daughter are buried. “It’s a place that is obviously close to his heart.”
The president spent 28% of his first year in office in Delaware, typically on weekend trips, according to recent tallies. Biden has called his White House residence something of a “gilded cage in terms of being able to walk outside and do things.”
But critics of the policy are concerned about who may be seeking to influence decision-making in the White House.
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The Biden administration has pledged to improve transparency upon taking office, including issuing visitor logs of in-person meetings on the grounds. However, the rule doesn’t extend to Biden’s homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where Biden has visited about 1 out of every 4 days since taking office.
“I can confirm we are not going to be providing information about the comings and goings of the president’s grandchildren or people visiting him in Delaware,” Psaki said in August.
Biden has spent half of his weekends in Delaware since taking office, 26 of 52, compared to 10 at the White House and 13 at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.
Asked Monday whether the administration might reconsider this, given the time Biden spends in his home state, Psaki demurred.
“We also have gone a step further than the prior administration and many administrations in releasing visitor logs of people who visit the White House and will continue to do that,” she said.
The administration praised its policy last year as fulfilling the president’s transparency goals.
“These logs give the public a look into the visitors entering and exiting the White House campus for appointments, tours, and official business — making good on President Biden’s commitment to restore integrity, transparency, and trust in government,” the White House said in a May announcement.
But while Biden has vowed to run the most ethical White House team “in history,” the administration’s approach has sometimes riled ethics experts.
Last year, records showed that the brother of a top adviser to the president had lobbied the National Security Council for a major automaker, meetings the White House declined to disclose.
Walter Shaub, the director of the Office of Government Ethics under former President Barack Obama and briefly under former President Donald Trump, compared it to a visitor log loophole over virtual meetings.
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The White House has declined to release these even as many meetings take place virtually due to pandemic safety precautions.
