Under growing pressure over alleged financial improprieties and a special counsel investigating the handling of classified material, President Joe Biden is receiving additional scrutiny for his failure to list free vacations at the homes of businesspeople on his annual financial disclosure form this week.
Travel magazine Travel Noire ran a recent headline declaring that "Biden Has Been on Vacation for 40% of His Presidency". Political analyst/editorialist Phillip Bump of The Washington Post tried to minimize the significance, mentioning that "Biden stayed at the homes of donors. His Virgin Islands trip was to a home owned by billionaire Democratic donors Bill and Connie Neville. Twice, he’s stayed at a Martha’s Vineyard compound owned by billionaire David Rubenstein."
"This is not an ideal situation, certainly, the president of the United States receiving favors from wealthy allies" Bump continued. "But these trips make up only 24 of the 250-plus days Biden has been away from the White House" Bump said.
Biden had three beach vacations at the homes of "wealthy and politically connected" owners during the past-year reporting period, according to The New York Post.
Biden did not pay the owner in at least two of those three getaways, said the Post, and in the third case it’s suspected the president did not pay.The president is receiving criticism from ethicists and Republicans for actions similar for what Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is currently being pilloried — non-reporting of free trips from a businessman. The left-leaning ProPublica has published almost a dozen stories about Thomas' trips and relationships with the wealthy. A search of ProPublica's archives found no stories about Biden's stays at billionaire homes.
Among professional ethicists, the issue is non-partisan: Walter Shaub, an ethics expert who led the Obama-era Office of Government Ethics, and Richard Painter, the top ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush White House, both told the New York Post that free vacation-home stays need to be disclosed if the homeowner isn’t present — and it appears they were not — because a ‘personal hospitality’ exception would not apply, according to the Post.
“The homeowner has to be a personal friend of the president or first lady and be present during the stay — otherwise that goes on the form. There’s no excuse not to have it on the form,” Painter added.
“You can’t have the president just going around using people’s houses for free without disclosure. That’s no better than a Supreme Court justice staying on a yacht for free without disclosure,” Painter said.
