Vice President Joe Biden will take part on Friday in a ceremony performed by several of his outgoing VP predecessors in a tradition going back over 75 years.
According to his daily schedule, Biden is slated to sign the drawer of the desk in his Ceremonial Office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, located next to the West Wing on the White House grounds, Friday afternoon. The event is pooled press.
Biden will follow in the footsteps of his immediate predecessor, former Vice President Dick Cheney, along with a slew of other second-in-commands going back to the 1940s who also signed the desk.
Vice President Dick Cheney signing the inside of the top drawer of his desk in the Vice President’s Ceremonial Office in 2009. (White House)
The desk is a part of a collection and was first used by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902, according to the White House. While several presidents had used the desk, including Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson, it was put in storage from 1929 to 1945.
Then it was picked out and used by President Truman in 1945. “Vice President Johnson and each subsequent Vice President has used the desk. The inside of the top drawer has been signed by the various users since the 1940s,” says the White House website.
