Then-Vice President Joe Biden speaks during an October 2016 rally at Wilkes University. President Biden returns to campus on Thursday to discuss his administration’s efforts to reduce gun violence.
Times Leader file photo
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When President Joe Biden stops at Wilkes University on Thursday to discuss his administration’s efforts to reduce gun violence, it won’t be the Scranton native’s first visit to Luzerne County, or the campus.
The president previously visited Wilkes on the 2016 campaign trail, then as the outgoing vice president stumping for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. He also appeared at Pittston Area High School in 2018.
On Thursday Biden will be speaking at the Marts Center on the Wilkes campus; an exact time has not been publicly released by the White House, and officials indicated to the Times Leader that the president’s visit to the Marts Center will not be open to the public.
It will, however, be the latest in a long line of presidential visits to the Diamond City, according to Mark Riccetti Jr. from the Luzerne County Historical Society, who spoke with our partners at WBRE/WYOU-TV.
“Nearly all of them make their way to the city at one point or another, and nearly all of them make their way downtown,” said Riccetti Jr., who cited President Rutherford B. Hayes as one of the earliest documented presidential visits to Wilkes-Barre.
“President Hayes stayed at the Wyoming Valley Hotel which was on River Street. So, it’s cliche but history repeats,” he added.
In a release issued Tuesday, the White House indicated that the focus of Biden’s visit to Wilkes-Barre will be to speak on efforts to build on the bipartisan Safer Communities Act signed into law last month.
The act was signed into law one month after the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.