Melania Trump is under fire from the media for her decision to remain in New York so 10-year-old Barron Trump can remain at his private school, but Vice President Joe Biden has spent nearly $1 million on 225 commuting trips from Delaware to Washington over four years, author Ronald Kessler said Thursday.
Between January 2009 and March 2013, "Biden, who seeks to cultivate the image of a regular Joe, would take a helicopter designated as Marine Two from the vice president's residence to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland at least once a week," Kessler told The Daily Mail.
"He then would hop on Air Force Two to jet back to his home in Delaware," Kessler added. "He would return to Washington on Air Force Two.
"The cost of the flights is doubled because after dropping him off in Delaware or going back to pick him up, the Air Force has to fly the plane empty on so-called deadhead trips."
The 225 trips required 400 flights and cost American taxpayers $979,680 for fuel and maintenance, based on Kessler's analysis of Air Force records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
"This figure does not include the additional costs of flying Biden on the Marine Two helicopter to and from the vice president's residence at the Naval Observatory and Andrews," he said. "Nor do they include crew costs for his frequent trips."
Kessler detailed Biden's commuting habits, sometimes occurring several times a day, in his August 2014 book, "The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents," available on Amazon.com.
Since the book's release, however, "Biden has cut back on the costly trips, often taking the train instead," Kessler said.
Biden's press office had no comment on his trips, according to the report. The vice president's annual salary is $230,700.
But taxpayers are still paying rent for more than 20 condos for Secret Service agents in Greenville, Del., because Biden's "schedule is so fluid and never concrete enough to properly prepare for his visits to Delaware," one agent told Kessler for the report.
"So, they keep a fully staffed Secret Service advance team in Delaware in condominiums that we lease — so that when he does these things back and forth to D.C., they're up there ready for him to arrive," the agent added.
"Biden or his staff continually change the schedule, and that's a grueling four years for agents to be assigned to his detail because of travel back and forth to Delaware, last-minute movement, and no set schedule," according to the agent. "Sometimes, he gives literally a few minutes" notice, "'Hey, we're going to Wilmington.'"
In addition, Biden has "free use of the vice president's residence on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory," Kessler reported.
"At least five Navy stewards attend to every personal need of Biden and his wife, Jill, including cooking, shopping for food, cleaning, and doing the laundry."
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