Joe Biden is proving impossible to parody. In one of the few funny jokes at the White House correspondents dinner, Wanda Sykes won loud laughter when she joked that terrorists interested in learning America’s most important secrets would only have to ask Biden how he’s doing. According to an account in Newsweek, Biden did give up one of the country’s secrets at another dinner where journalists and politicians make fun of Republicans (and occasionally laugh at each other). Biden told his dinnermates about the existence of a secret bunker under the Vice President’s Residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory. Eleanor Clift writes:
Despite more than fifteen trips to the VPR over the past five years, and despite having conducted dozens of interviews about security precautions taken for Cheney and his staff after 9/11, I was never told such a bunker existed. I was able to learn and write about Cheney’s getaways at Camp David, extra measures taken for him when he traveled on Air Force Two, and even the use of a “dummy” plane sometimes used in combat zones. But no one ever mentioned this secure facility at the Naval Observatory. The obvious conclusion: Its existence was highly classified. So what was Joe Biden doing talking about it at the Gridiron Dinner? And, if it was indeed classified, will this disclosure be referred to the Justice Department?
