Joe Biden has raked in the cash since he’s left the vice presidency – making speeches at up to $200,000 a pop, signing a seven-figure book deal, and renting a 12,000-square-foot home in Northern Virginia from a wealthy venture capitalist.
He even has demands in his contract for raspberry sorbet and chartered flights for his speeches.
The details about the new life of the man who calls himself ‘Middle Class Joe’ were revealed Tuesday by the Washington Post, which used public records to track down Biden’s new lifestyles of the rich and famous.
The paper revealed the Bidens rent a home in McLean, Va., that contains five bedrooms and10 bathrooms, marble fireplaces, a gym and a sauna.
It’s owned by Mark Ein, a wealthy venture capitalist who has donated to politicians on both sides of the aisle, including George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton. Ein also owns the Washington Kastles and the Washington City Paper.
Biden’s campaign wouldn’t give the dollar amount the former vice president pays to live there but called it a ‘substantial monthly rent.’
Real estate website Zillow estimates rent for the home to be around $20,000 a month.
Additionally the former vice president and his wife Jill purchased a $2.7 million, 4,800-square-foot vacation house in Rehoboth Beach, Del., in 2017.
The Bidens have owned their 7,000-square foot lakeside home in Wilmington for more than two decades.
Biden has released his tax returns in the past but has not done so since 2016, his last year as vice president.
He has promised to release them as a presidential candidate. But he has asked for an extension on filing the financial disclosure form required from candidates.
Financing his new life is the former vice president’s book deal and paid speeches.
He and Jill signed a three book deal worth $8 million in April 2017. Two of the books have been published: ‘Promise me Dad’ by Joe Biden and ‘Where the Light Enters’ by Jill Biden.
Then there are the speeches the former vice president gives at six figures a pop.
The Washington Post cited 65 instances in which Biden gave a speech or appeared at a book event, noting that in 10 instances of them he did not take a fee but did have his travel paid for.
Biden’s campaign said he has given less than 50 paid speeches.
He charged between $150,000 and $200,000 per speech, which he kept politically safe venues after Hillary Clinton was attacked for giving paid speeches to companies like Goldman Sachs.
For his speeches, Biden asked for an Italian meal: angel hair pomodoro, a caprese salad, topped off with raspberry sorbet with biscotti.
His dressing room was to be stocked with bottled water, Coke Zero, Regular Coke, Orange Gatorade and black coffee, his contract required.
And the sponsors for his speeches provided VIP hotel suites, town cars and professional drivers, chartered flights and travel expense reimbursements that for some of his appearances reached at least $10,000 per event, the Post reported.
On the campaign trail, Biden has taken care to emphasize his working-class roots and his appeal to blue-collar workers is considered his greatest strength against Donald Trump.
He even calls himself ‘Middle Class Joe.’
‘I know I’m called Middle-Class Joe,’ Biden said at an October 2017 campaign event.
‘It’s not meant to be a compliment. It means I’m not sophisticated. But I know what made this country what it is: ordinary people doing extraordinary things.’
A native of Scranton, Pa., who moved to Delaware as a child when his father lost his job due to a decline in the coal mining industry, Biden often uses his roots as comparison between him and Trump.
‘Trump doesn’t understand the struggles working folks go through. He doesn’t understand what it’s like to worry you will lose the roof over your head. He doesn’t understand what it’s like to wonder if you’ll be able to put food on the table,’ Biden said in May.
‘And he doesn’t understand that the longest walk a parent can make is up a short flight of stairs to their child’s bedroom to say, honey, I’m sorry. We have to move. You can’t go back to your school. You won’t see your friends because Daddy or Mommy lost their job,’ he added.
‘My dad had to make that walk in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized how hard it must have been for him. But he was not alone. This story isn’t unique to the Bidens. Too many people around this country have had to make that walk,’ he concluded.
Biden, during his time as a senator, referred to himself as the ‘poorest man in Congress.’
In 2014, when he was vice president, his net worth was estimated between $39,000 and $800,000.
He and Jill Biden lived on his vice president’s salary – at $230,700 a year – and her pay from teaching English at a Northern Virginia community college.
Biden was not born to wealth and his time as a public servant kept his net worth low.
As vice president, Biden recalled how the family became so strapped for cash during Beau Biden’s battle with brain cancer he recalled how he told President Barack Obama he was considering selling his Wilmington home.
‘He’s going to be mad at me saying this,’ Biden told CNN in 2016. ‘He said, ‘I’ll give you the money. Whatever you need, I’ll give you the money. Don’t, Joe. Promise me, promise me.’ ‘
YEAH…… OLE KIDDY DIDDLIN MIDDLE CLASS PAPA JOE NEEDS A DAMNED NOOSE…………
“Biden was not born to wealth and his time as a public servant kept his net worth low.”
The right jew ‘connections’ changed all that.
Good thing the rope will care less about your net worth, scumbag… just doing it’s job.