Joe Biden and the Inaccurate Amtrak Anecdote

Former President Joe Biden has, once again, shared a story about an encounter with an Amtrak conductor that has been debunked multiple times. During an episode on Jay Leno’s Garage, which aired on Monday, Biden recounted an anecdote about his friend Angelo Negri, a conductor who allegedly approached him. The story describes Negri grabbing Biden by the cheek, surprising his Secret Service agents, and questioning the air travel miles attributed to Biden as vice president, pointing out that he had traveled almost twice as much by train.

Details of the Story

Biden has told this story numerous times, stating he traveled to Delaware from Washington, D.C., to visit his mother who was ill. In some versions, Biden specifies his mother, Catherine Eugenia “Jean” Finnegan Biden, was dying, having passed away in 2010.

He claimed that, while surrounded by 30 Secret Service agents, a conductor approached, grabbed his cheek, and engaged him over an article citing Biden’s air miles on Air Force Two. Biden recounted the conductor’s comment, saying, “Do you realize how many miles you’ve ridden on Amtrak? We calculated it. You, as a senator for 36 years, for you, was a total of 298 miles a day. You averaged 22 trips a year. Thirty-six years times that. And that’s not counting VP. You’ve traveled 1,200,000 miles already. I don’t want to hear any more of this about Air Force Two.”

Inconsistencies and Fact Check

The timeline of events makes Biden’s story impossible. Negri retired in 1993, long before Biden became the vice president, and he died in May 2014, before Biden reached his air travel milestone.

Though reports suggest Biden might have surpassed a million rail miles by late 2015, the interaction with Negri could not have occurred as described. It remains possible Biden confused details, recalling a conversation with another conductor. CNN reported in 2021 that Olga Betz, Negri’s stepdaughter, mentioned the two were good friends, with Negri holding Biden in high regard.

The narrative might involve another conductor, or Biden might have confused visits related to different events in his life. Consequently, his claim about visiting his dying mother at the time does not align with the timeline, as she passed years before these travel milestones were reached.