Joe Biden’s joys and sorrows have crystallized around the all-American Chevrolet. A brand of car that he is not even allowed to drive on public roads.
Emptiness. Joe Biden could not speak, could not think, could not feel. The future president of the United States had learned that his wife and daughter had died in a car crash. It was Christmas 1972.
Biden was about to become a senator for the first time.
“I just felt a core of emptiness growing inside me, as if I had been sucked into a black hole,” Biden recounts his feelings in a 2007 in a memoir.
Spouse Neilia Hunter Biden the station wagon he was driving reportedly accidentally passed a stop sign in front of a heavy vehicle. The family’s two sons survived the crash.
The exact cause of the accident remained unclear.
Crash car was the all-American Chevrolet. “Chevy” was connected to the fate of the most powerful man in the world about 50 years ago, and so it is today.
It may be unstylish to compare the accident that took the wife and daughter to Biden’s later trials, but in the United States the connection of the president’s fate to one car brand is already a concept.
The remains of the car driven by Neilia Hunter Biden, pictured after the crash on December 19, 1972.
This one at the beginning of the year, Biden found himself in the middle of an embarrassing uproar, when classified papers were found, for example, in his private residence in Wilmington, Delaware. The classified papers are apparently from Biden’s senatorial and vice presidential terms. The media got a tip that the papers were lying in a garage in Wilmington.
Read more: It was already embarrassing that classified documents were found in Biden’s possession – then the chosen line of communication only made the situation worse
The reporter from Fox News knew how to tell what else is in the stable: a 1967 Chervolet Corvette Stingray.
He asked at the press conference what the president was really thinking when he left the papers next to the old car.
“My Corvette is in a locked garage, okay? It does not mean that they [paperit] would be in the middle of the street,” Biden replied According to Time magazine.
The internet exploded with car memes.
However, the Corvette is not just any car. It’s the only car Biden is said to own lovingly.
Joe Biden and his first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, cutting the future senator’s 30th birthday cake just one month before the fatal crash.
Biden has built an image of himself as a car guy, which appeals to American voters and the auto industry.
The relationship with Chevrolets is not out of the blue, it goes back to childhood.
The president’s father Joseph Biden Sr. was a lumberjack who changed from one industry to another, who eventually ended up as a car salesman in Wilmington. Despite the precarious finances and heavy drinking, he kept the family alive and stayed on the right path. This is how it is told of The New York Times in a personal photo.
He arranged for his son to borrow nice convertibles, which the future president introduced Pollena to his fellow students.
When the son married Neilia Hunter in 1966, the father got a green Chevrolet Corvette representing the following year’s model as a wedding present.
It has an approximately five-liter V8 engine, which, with 350 horsepower, accelerates from zero to 100 in less than five seconds. It is this car that the president keeps in his locked garage.
Joe Biden’s father quit the car industry in 1972 and became a real estate dealer. The reason was the son’s rise to senator at the age of 29.
“He didn’t want a US senator to have a father who sells used cars,” Biden’s little sister Valerie Owens said, according to The New York Times.
That year, 1972, ended sadly with the wreck of another Chevrolet driven by Neilia.
Corvettes seem to follow Biden everywhere. The Corvette was left next to Biden’s podium during the presidential election in Michigan in 2020. However, it is a different car than the one Biden loves.
With Biden is currently a small collection of valuable cars, which includes, in addition to the Corvette, at least a Mercedes-Benz 190SL and a Plymouth Cranbrook.
On the other hand, Biden has a problem: He is not allowed to drive on public roads.
The reason is the tight security arrangements of the US president and vice president. The president is transported by road in a very special car.
It is The Beast, a Cadillac limousine that can withstand bullets and explosions. The secret service protecting the president ships the car around the world, which is quite a logistical operation.
Joe Biden stepped out of his special car in front of Westminster Abbey in London as he attended Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral last year.
The Secret Service has made at least one exception.
When Biden was vice president in 2016, he got to participate as a TV face Jay Leno to the car program. Biden took the host for a ride in his classic Corvette.
“It feels good, I’ve always liked driving. This shouldn’t be said on TV, but I like the speed,” Biden commented while driving.
In the program, he said that the Corvette’s engine has been rebuilt. The renovation work was done by Biden’s sons Hunter’s and Beau a Christmas present for his father. Beau died of cancer in 2015.
Next once the car popped up in the 2020 election campaign.
In the campaign video, Biden drives the car, praises it and describes how “there is complete control” in the driver’s seat.
At the end, he briefly reflects on the electric future of motoring, before the viewer is encouraged to open the purse strings to support the campaign.
Car is on the wallpaper again when secret papers were found next to it.
The situation is embarrassing for Biden because he criticized his predecessor Donald Trump for careless handling of secret papers.
According to the White House, Biden’s papers have ended up in the wrong place unintentionally. The matter is now being investigated by a special prosecutor.
Biden has credibility in the game, and the car jokes on the web don’t make it any better.
Read more: The Minister of Justice appoints a special prosecutor to investigate the document findings in Biden’s apartment
Last the president has been able to enjoy the cars in peace in September at the Detroit Auto Show. That’s where he found the Corvette, of course.
Biden was photographed sitting in a Corvette Z06 pumped with 670 horsepower. In addition, he got to drive the new Cadillac Lyriq electric SUV at a walking pace.
“It’s a beautiful car,” he commented on the electric car, according to news agency AP.
“But I love the Corvette.”
Biden got into the new Corvette Z06 sports car at the Detroit Auto Show last September.
Correction 29.1. 12:06 p.m.: In the fourth picture of the article, it was incorrectly stated that the Corvette photographed in Michigan was Biden’s. It was the second Corvette brought to the scene by the campaign organization.
Read more: President Biden’s home was searched – more secret documents were found
Read more: Secret documents were also found in the possession of ex-vice president Mike Pence
#Cars #Joe #Biden #confusing #relationship #car #garage #revealed #embarrassing #discovery
