Former President Joe Biden has once more recounted his disputed story about an encounter with an Amtrak conductor. During a recent appearance on Jay Leno’s Garage YouTube show, Biden shared the anecdote involving his friend, conductor Angelo Negri. According to Biden, Negri approached him regarding a newspaper article that stated Biden, as vice president, had flown over 1.2 million miles on Air Force Two. Biden claimed Negri grabbed his cheek in front of astonished Secret Service agents to criticize him for mentioning his air miles when he had traveled nearly double that distance by train.
The tale Biden tells is not possible. Records show that Negri passed away before Biden accumulated 1.2 million miles on Air Force Two. Furthermore, Negri retired in 1993, well before Biden became vice president. Biden has been repeatedly fact-checked on this story by outlets like the Associated Press and CNN, highlighting these inconsistencies.
What Is Biden’s Amtrak Story?
Biden, now 83, has publicly repeated the anecdote multiple times. He told Leno he was traveling from Washington, D.C., to visit his ailing mother, Catherine Eugenia “Jean” Finnegan Biden, who passed away in 2010. Biden described how approximately 30 Secret Service agents surrounded him when a conductor, whom he identified as Negri in other versions, allegedly confronted him about his air travel milestones. The conductor supposedly told Biden he had traveled over 1,200,000 miles on Amtrak as a senator for 36 years, far surpassing his air miles.
Fact Check
It appears plausible, as CNN reported, that Biden exceeded a million miles on Amtrak by late 2015. His photographer, David Lienemann, also supports this possibility. While Biden may have maintained contact with Negri post-retirement, Negri’s stepdaughter Olga Betz confirmed their friendship to CNN in 2021. She noted her stepfather’s admiration for Biden. However, Biden’s conversation about his Air Force Two milestone with Negri could not have occurred, since Negri died in May 2014, more than a year before Biden reached a million miles.
Biden might have spoken with another conductor in late 2015 or early 2016 following the announcement of his air miles and mistakenly conflated events or individuals. Regardless of the confusion, it is incorrect that he traveled to see his dying mother concerning the milestone, as she passed long before this time.
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