Joe Biden's Amtrak Ride to DC Is Out

Plans change amid security concerns for inauguration
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 14, 2021 1:30 AM CST
Joe Biden's Amtrak Ride to DC Is Out
President-elect Joe Biden speaks during an event at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del., Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021, to announce key nominees for the Justice Department.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President-elect Joe Biden will no longer be taking an Amtrak train to Washington for his inauguration because of security concerns, a person briefed on the decision told the AP on Wednesday. The president-elect’s decision reflects growing worries over potential threats in the Capitol and across the US in the lead-up to Biden's Jan. 20 inauguration. Security in Washington has ramped up considerably in preparation for the inauguration after the violent insurrection at the US Capitol last week by supporters of outgoing President Trump, and the FBI warned over the weekend of plans for armed protests at all 50 state capitals and in Washington, DC, in the days leading up to the event. The person briefed on Biden's decision spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

The move to forgo the 90-minute train ride from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, to Washington was likely not easy for the president-elect. Biden’s preference for riding the train during his 36-year Senate career was such a central part of his public persona that he rode Amtrak home on his final day as vice president, and he used a train tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania during the presidential campaign as part of an effort to appeal to blue-collar workers. Biden became known for riding the train starting from his very earliest days in the Senate, when he made a point to return home nearly every night to help raise his young sons after his wife and young daughter died in a car accident in 1972. His embrace of Amtrak—and the friends he made among the train conductors and staff as a regular—was featured in a short film that aired during the Democratic National Convention last August.

(More Joe Biden stories.)

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