Biden Greets Returning EPA Workers: ‘I Brought Some Muffins!’ (PHOTO)

Vice President Joe Biden, left, greets Environmental Protection Agency workers with muffins as they return to work after 16 days of a government shutdown at the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building in Washingto... Vice President Joe Biden, left, greets Environmental Protection Agency workers with muffins as they return to work after 16 days of a government shutdown at the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building in Washington on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013. MORE LESS
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Vice President Joe Biden showed up at the Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters bearing muffins Thursday morning, and greeted employees as they returned to work after the 16-day government shutdown. 

“I brought some muffins!” Biden said when he arrived, placing few containers of “Coffee Cake Bites” on the EPA security desk, per a White House pool report.

The vice president spotted a sign on the desk that read, “All visitors must be escorted at all times.” Biden announced: “I’d like to be escorted!”

After the muffins sat untouched at the desk for a while, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy held them out to staff.

“Would you like a muffin? The vice president brought some muffins,” McCarthy said, per the pool report. A line formed, and Biden worried aloud: “I didn’t bring enough muffins!”

Nearly all EPA employees were furloughed during the shutdown.

McCarthy sent a memo to her staff reminding them to take down their “out of office” messages from email and voicemail Thursday morning, according to the Associated Press.

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