 "Modi to attend Quad at Biden's Wilmington home: The 3-bedroom residence dear to US president")
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi travels to the United States tomorrow (September 21) for the Quad summit where he will meet Australia’s Anthony Albanese, and Japan’s Fumio Kishida, he won’t be doing it at the White House in Washington, DC. In fact, US President Joe Biden will host his fellow Quad heads at his house in Wilmington, Delaware.
The US president will also hold bilateral meetings with Modi, Albanese and Kishida at his mansion in Wilmington .
When asked why, Biden chose his personal residence over the White House, an official said that the US president wished to incorporate “personal touches” at the summit.
But what do we know about Biden’s residence? How big is it? Here’s what we know.
Biden’s family house
The Wilmington mansion has served as Joe Biden’s family home since 1996 when he and his wife, First Lady Dr Jill Biden, purchased it for $350,000. The mansion sits on a four-acre plot and according to market value, it is estimated to be worth between $1-2 million in today’s times.
The large house is made up of three bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms and remains a favourite of Biden, despite the grandeur of the White House. In fact, Biden often travels to Wilmington to unwind.
The gable-roofed house is located in the wealthiest area of Delaware and far from prying eyes; it isn’t even visible to people from the road.
The design of the house and even the landscaping, including planting Leland Cypress trees, have all been done by Joe Biden himself. The house boasts of some beautiful features — a pool, a library with Chesterfield sofas, and a sunroom overlooking a small man-made lake, which was constructed by one of the area’s wealthiest families, the du Ponts.
On his experience of designing the house, Biden has been quoted as saying that he’s a “frustrated architect”. His sister, Valerie Biden Owens, once said about the house, “Joe has a very symmetrical eye, and if he had a million dollars he wouldn’t be traveling, he would be putting it into his house.”
A backdrop to big Biden moments
The Wilmington mansion is very dear to Biden and his family. It has been the scene of several significant moments in the lives of the Biden family.
So meaningful is the home to the Bidens that when the now US president floated the idea of taking out a second mortgage on the house to deal with his son Beau’s cancer treatment, the then-President Barack Obama flatly refused. In his memoir, Promise Me, Dad, he writes that Obama said, “Don’t do that. I’ll give you the money. I have it. You can pay me back whenever.”
Moreover, the house served as the location where the family held an intervention for Biden’s other son, Hunter , over his drug addiction. In his memoir, Beautiful Things, Hunter writes that the Wilmington home was where they had a tearful moment following which got on a plane to California and headed to rehab.
The Wilmington House is also where Biden’s eldest granddaughter, Naomi, convinced her ‘pop’ to run for president a third time in 2019. It served as his de-facto campaign headquarters then as most Americans were stuck at home owing to the COVID pandemic. He held many Zoom and online fundraisers from this very residence, offering several Americans a glimpse into his personal haven.
Jill Biden has also been vocal about her love for the home, describing its sunroom — covered in family mementos, campaign paraphernalia and artwork — as “one of my favourite places in the world”.
“The small room overlooks the lake behind our house, and I like to sit with my feet tucked up on the sofa, wrapped in a pashmina, grading papers there from my classes at Northern Virginia Community College, where I’ve taught English and writing for the last eleven years,” she wrote in her memoir, Where the Light Enters. “It’s a room made for homeyness and comfort.”
Security at Wilmington
Since being vice president, Biden has often resorted to returning to his Wilmington house, even conducting plenty of business there. Hence, the house also has Secret Service cover.
Close to the property is another smaller cottage that Biden has reportedly rented out to the Secret Service. Interestingly in 2012, he earned $26,400 by renting this smaller house to the Secret Service.
Scene of the ‘crime’
His Wilmington house also made headlines in January last year after classified documents were found in the garage. The revelation came three days after the White House said similarly classified materials had been located at Biden’s former institute in Washington. The documents dated back to his time as vice president under Barack Obama’s presidency.
When asked about them, Biden had said that they “weren’t sitting out in the street”, arguing they were partially secured.
The news of the documents prompted Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint former US attorney Robert Hur to conduct a full review of the storage of the records. “The extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter,” Garland said.
Hur later released a 345-page report that questioned Biden’s age and mental competence but recommended no criminal charges for the 81-year-old, finding insufficient evidence to make a case stand up in court.
With inputs from agencies
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