President Joe Biden said Friday he expects to attend the North American International Auto Show in Detroit later this month.
Biden was hosting a virtual event in Washington where he was helping to announce economic development grant winners, including a $52 million award to an effort in southeastern Michigan led by the Detroit Regional Partnership first reported by the Free Press.
Appearing via teleconference, the partnership’s president and CEO, Maureen Donahue Krauss, invited both Biden and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to the auto show, which will be held at Huntington Place convention center and other venues beginning with media day on Sept. 14.
“I’ll be there,” Biden chimed in. He then added, “I’m a car guy as you kind of noticed.”
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Krauss said it will be “awesome” to have the president at the event but if he does attend, it won’t be a huge surprise: Biden through the years has left no question how much he loves autos, tearing up a track last year in a new all-electric Ford F-150 in Dearborn.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, who knows the president and first lady Jill Biden well, also had recently invited Biden to the auto show, a fact she revealed last week on MSNBC.
The White House hasn’t released any details about the visit or when it might occur. The public portion of the auto show begins Sept. 17.
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.