My Chance Encounter with Joe Biden
I got to reconnect with our former president on the train this week!
On January 13, 2026, two colleagues and I made a trip to New York to visit with some Lynx Investment Advisory clients. We hopped on the Acela in Stamford, Connecticut for our trip back to Washington DC. For those who don’t know, the Acela is a high-speed Amtrak train that runs between Boston and Washington. Frequent visitors to New York from both cities generally prefer the Acela over the hassle of air travel. Indeed, the Acela travels between New York and Washington in under three hours. A trip by plane generally takes that long or longer when you factor in the trips to and from airports, getting through security, and frequent airport delays. Knowing all this, and given the growing popularity of the Acela, taking the train often costs more than flying!
On our recent trip, when the train stopped at Wilmington, Delaware, we noticed a group of security types (dark suits, coats and ties, lapel pins, and ear pieces) walk through our cabin and secure two tables of four right behind where my colleagues and I were also sitting at a table for four. Following behind them was none other than former President Joe Biden and two staffers. They took their seats at the table behind us with no sign of recognition from anyone in our car, which was pretty full. One of the Secret Service agents sat across from us. We whispered to him: “President Biden?” He responded with a nod and a smile.
I got my phone out and texted on our family chat that we were on the train, and President Biden just came and sat behind us. My daughter-in-law Julie texted back from California: “Woah! Pic or it didn’t happen!” I let that challenge stew inside me for a few minutes, then got up, went to where the President was at his table. He was seated at the window with a staffer next to him in the aisle and another seated across. I greeted the President, saying we had met at the White House a few years earlier, realizing that he was not likely to remember that even though it did happen. He smiled and extended his hand. We chatted briefly. The president was both amiable and very alert. I asked for a photo. He said sure. I leaned in and his staffer leaned out to get out of the picture while the other staffer took the picture with my phone.
Back at my seat, I texted the family with the picture. Julie responded: “Way to go, Pete!” I then posted it on social media, pointing out that although the Acela has a first-class car, Biden and his group were in business class with the rest of us.
I was frankly surprised and somewhat shocked at the reaction on Threads, where a day later it had 21,000 likes and over 900 comments. It was some of the comments that were shocking to me. Many of them were from fans of Biden, who said how much they missed him, what a decent person he was, thanked me for posting, and were happy to see him in good shape.
The surprise was the bitterness of those who don’t like him. The comments were too ugly to repeat in most cases and some questioned me for even posting the picture.
“Obviously you are as evil and stupid as he is” said one post.
Others suggested that it wasn’t really Biden, or that there is no business class / first class, just economy and first class, apparently thinking I was on a plane, not a train.
I had trouble imagining the type of person who would post some of the comments I read.
The crassness, lack of civility, and just plain craziness made me wonder what kind of lives those people lead. And are there really that many of them?
Apparently so. A lesson in human behavior that I’d rather forget.
Check for yourself and see what you think. My Threads handle is petelx.
Purchase Peter’s mystery-thriller novel The Secret of Fátima, available in ebook and paperback from Ghosts of the Desert Books:
