Vice President Joe Biden left “proof” on Friday that he served eight years as President Obama’s second-in-command.
Taking part in a ceremony performed by every one of his VP predecessors in a tradition going back over 75 years, Biden signed his name inside the drawer of his desk in the vice president’s ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, located next to the West Wing on the White House grounds.
“This is the proof I was vice president,” he jokingly told reporters in attendance.
Referring to his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, who accompanied him at the event, Biden quipped: “Why don’t second ladies sign their drawers?”
Looking down at the names of the other signatures of both presidents and vice presidents in the drawer, Biden said, “You know it’s some fast company here,” naming Harry Truman, George H.W. Bush and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
“This is a great honor to be in this position” he said. “It has been the great honor of our lives the last eight years to be able to serve in this capacity.”
Biden left his signature next to Al Gore’s.
Biden’s signature in VP’s desk drawer next to predecessors Al Gore and Harry Truman. pic.twitter.com/aJVihZ6ANA
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) January 6, 2017
According to the vice president’s office, the desk is one of only four desks ever to have been used in the Oval Office.
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.
Vice presidents going back to the 1940s have signed the desk.
