Until 8 p.m. includes Twin Cities area

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Vice President Joe Biden told an audience of invited guests in St. Paul Thursday that the 2009 federal stimulus worked to create jobs and revitalize neighborhoods across the country.

Biden spoke at the Union Depot, which was remodeled in part with $35 million dollars from the stimulus.

Not everything the vice president did was in front of a crowd, though. Here's some of what happened behind the scenes.

About 12:08, while his assembled audience waited on the inside,  Biden was a level down on the outside to in

spect a hybrid bus built in St. Cloud by a company that received stimulus money.

"How old is the bus?" Biden asked the driver,

 William Byrd, who didn't have a precise answer about that or the fleet size.

Biden turned to reporters and asked "Where do you want to go, guys? We're closing the door. I'm driving. I used to drive a bus. You think I'm joking? I'm not, so I'm ready to take off in this thing."

"I don't have my chauffeur's license anymore. I think I'd get arrested."

Tim Mayasich, director of the Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority, talked about the benefits of having a multimodal hub in downtown St. Paul, particularly in a building that had been mostly used as postal service storage.

Project planning began in 2009 and it was done by 2011 as a "shovel-ready" American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant recipient.

"We put a lot of people to work," Mayasich said.

Biden chimed in, "What a lot of people don't realize is back in the '60s and '50s, this was movement. I ride Amtrak a lot, over 8,000 round trips to my hometown of Wilmington, Del., from Washington because I commuted every day."

"The whole shift now is back again," Biden said.

Mayasich described efforts to increase commuting between cities using old but updated infrastructure.

"So much more we can do. So much more we can do," Biden said.

"OK, let's go to work," Biden said as reporters were led off the bus, "unless anyone wants to stay while I drive."

Later, Biden dropped by a domestic violence resource center named for the late Sen. Paul Wellstone and his wife, Sheila. He spoke to about two dozen advocates from groups around the state about his personal efforts to strengthen domestic violence laws and promote additional federal funding for the cause.

He wound up staying for about 30 minutes, speaking about what he sees as a culture shift on issues of domestic violence and sexual assault.

"What we are continually trying to do, and I know you are too, is make clear there is nothing manly about laying your hand on a woman. It takes a coward to do that," Biden said, referring to programs aimed at getting young men to pledge to do something if they spot a problem.

Biden paid particular tribute to two high school-aged boys in the workshop getting their schools to do 

 that aim to heighten awareness about violence against women.

Before leaving town, Biden and his motorcade pulled up to a St. Paul fire station. He said he makes a point to visit fire halls on most of his trips, joking as he walked in about the home state he represented for decades in the U.S. Senate.

"We have three political parties in Delaware: Democrats, Republicans and firefighters," Biden said.

As he heaped praise on the uniformed firefighters -- after greeting each one personally -- Biden made clear he had no political objective for stopping in.

"I'm not running for a damned thing," he said. "You're stuck with me for another year. But I'm not running for anything."

Politics and Government News

Capitol View®

Brian Bakst

Author

Not everything Vice President Joe Biden did in the Twin Cities Thursday was in front of a crowd.

MPR News reporter Brian Bakst discusses Vice President Joe Biden's visit to St. Paul on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016.

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