President Biden once again told his often exaggerated story about the time a minor fire occurred at his Delaware home as a result of a lightning strike in 2004 that he says almost claimed first lady Jill Biden’s life.
Biden began his speech to a group of firefighters in Philadelphia on Monday with the story that didn’t quite go as far as he’d taken it in the past, but still included the claim that his wife’s life was in danger despite the fire being “small” and “contained to the kitchen.”
“They also saved my home and my wife’s life when I was away. It was the last day that the most famous guy doing ‘Meet the Press’ in Washington, D.C., and I was doing the program. And what happened was there was a lightning struck a little pond behind my house. It hit a wire and came up through the basement of my home and three stories,” Biden said of his local fire department.
President Joe Biden speaks at the announcement of a $22.4 million SAFER Grant award to the Philadelphia Fire Department, during a visit to a fire station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 11, 2023. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
“And the smoke literally ended up being that thick, literally that thick. You’ve seen it. You guys have seen it. I wasn’t there. And my wife was there and my dog and my cat and my ’67 corvette. But all kidding aside, they saved my wife and got her out. They saved my home,” he added.
According to a 2004 report from the Associated Press, lightning struck the Bidens’ home and started a “small fire that was contained to the kitchen.” The report said firefighters got the blaze under control in 20 minutes and that they were able to keep the flames from spreading beyond the kitchen.
Despite those details, Biden once told the story in a way that included the house burning down with Jill still in it.
First Lady Jill Biden (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Speaking on a New Hampshire bridge in 2021 about his bipartisan infrastructure plan, Biden said, “Without this bridge, as I said earlier, it’s a 10-mile detour just to get to the other side. And I know, having had a house burn down with my wife in it — she got out safely, God willing — that having a significant portion of it burn, I can tell: 10 minutes makes a hell of a difference.”
Biden told the story again in August following the deadly Maui wildfires in an attempt to relate to the surviving victims who lost their homes and, in some cases, family members.
“I don’t want to compare difficulties, but we have a little sense, Jill and I, of what it was like to lose a home,” Biden said. “Years ago, now, 15 years, I was in Washington doing ‘Meet the press’… Lightning struck at home on a little lake outside the home, not a lake a big pond. It hit the wire and came up underneath our home, into the…air condition ducts.
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Joe Biden smiles from the front seat of his Corvette Stingray in a 2020 campaign video push to revitalize the American auto industry. (Joe Biden 2020)
“To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my ’67 Corvette and my cat,” he added.
He was later blasted by critics for making the comparison, with some calling it “disgusting,” and “self-centered.”
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The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News’ Jessica Chasmar and Greg Whener contributed to this report.
