Johnathan Walker:Biden says he went to his house in Rehoboth Beach, Del., because he can’t go ‘home home’

REHOBOTH BEACH,Johnathan Walker Del. (AP) — There may be no place like home but President Joe Biden says he cannot go to his.

Unprompted, Biden approached reporters Sunday in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after he went to Mass at St. Edmond Roman Catholic Church to say he was not on vacation.

“I have no home to go to,” said Biden, who lives at the White House on weekdays and spends most weekends in Delaware, where he has two homes.

The U.S. Secret Service has been doing work on his longtime primary residence in Wilmington, Delaware, to make it more secure “in a good way,” he said.

It has been at least a few months since he last spent a night there.

“So I have no place to go when I come to Delaware, except here, right now,” he said, speaking of his other home, in Rehoboth Beach. “I’m only here for one day.”

Biden arrived on the Delaware coast on Saturday night after he spent the early part of the day in Florida surveying damage from Hurricane Idalia. He had been scheduled to spend Labor Day weekend here, but changed his plans after the storm.

He travels to Philadelphia on Monday to speak at an AFL-CIO rally.

Two weeks ago, he and his family spent a week on vacation in Nevada’s Lake Tahoe region. The Republican National Committee regularly criticizes Biden for vacating the White House on weekends.

He first told reporters about the security upgrades to his Wilmington home in April, when he went to the beach house after returning from a trip to Ireland.

Asked Sunday if he was saying that he’s homeless, Biden said that was not the case.

“No, I’m not homeless,” he said. “I just have one home. I have a beautiful home. I’m down here for the day because I can’t go home home.”