According to Joe Biden, in a story related by him to
Robert Hur during Hur's investigation of the
Joe Biden classified documents incident, the topic of his presidential library was first broached by
Jill Biden in July 2023 following remarks he gave at the
Harry Truman Presidential Library, after which he began thinking about it more closely.
Annie Tomasini and
Anthony Bernal were subsequently designated by Biden to organize fundraising for the library's construction. The
University of Delaware in
Newark, Delaware, and
Syracuse University in
Syracuse, New York, were both initially cited by Biden as possible locations for the library facility. As of July 2024, however, the University of Delaware reported it was "unaware of any conversations on this topic" while a spokesperson for Syracuse said at the same time that "there have been no conversations to date on this". In November 2024,
The Wall Street Journal reported that some donors were putting up "resistance" to giving funds for the library. The next month, following Biden's pardon of
Hunter Biden, several major
Democratic Party donors reportedly signaled their intent to withhold donations for the proposed library facility altogether. Some donors were reportedly still upset "over his decision to seek a second term despite health issues". As of December 2024, NARA was recruiting staff to prepare the Biden library document collections. In January 2025,
Philadelphia mayor
Cherelle Parker expressed interest in lobbying for the library to be built in her city. In March 2025,
Wilmington, Delaware lobbied for the library to be built in its city. In September 2025, Biden selected his own state of Delaware as the location for his library and approved a 13-person governance board that is charged with steering the project. ==References==