Can this White House do anything right? There is a story reported in the Daily Mail that the White House and Biden lied about King Charles inviting Biden for a state visit when he goes to London on his way to a NATO meeting next month.
Remember when Biden decided to snub King Charles and not attend his coronation, choosing to send Jill and a granddaughter? At the time, the White House was scrambling to give a good reason for the snub. It is tradition, they said, that American presidents don’t attend the coronations, they send an official delegation. Well, it’s been 70 years since the last coronation and Biden did receive an invitation.
Karine Jean-Pierre said that King Charles and Biden had a nice phone call visit and that King Charles invited Biden for a state visit when he’s in London this summer.
Was it a snub by the famously pro-Irish president?
Not at all, said his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre. The two heads of state had just spoken by phone and the king had invited the president for a state visit very soon.
At the time that sounded as reasonable as anything else coming out of the Biden White House. However, the Daily Mail reports that no such invitation was extended to Biden during that phone call.
Biden will arrive in London next month, a stop during a European trip centered around a NATO summit. There is no state visit with King Charles on the schedule. No Buckingham Palace banquet, no 82-gun salute, as there was during President Trump’s state visit four years ago. The royals pulled out all the stops for Trump and Melania.
Instead, Biden will spend less than 24 hours in London before he flies to Vilnius, Lithuania for the NATO meeting. Normally, a full-state visit lasts about four days. Plus the planning takes about a year, whereas this trip is just 3 months after the coronation.
‘There was never an invitation for a state visit,’ said a London source. ‘The point was to try to get away from headlines about Biden snubbing Charles over the coronation, and show that the two had a decent relationship.
‘And the White House managed to mess it up.’
A U.S. official confirmed that Biden would still meet King Charles.
In the meantime, British officials have swung into action to tamp down more headlines about Biden snubs and spare the White House more blushes.
London’s newspapers have begun describing the trip as a ‘mini state visit.’
Really? A mini-state visit? Geez. The king will meet with him and that’s it. This does nothing for the questions about Biden’s relationship with the Brits. You may remember that in April, Biden spent less than 24 hours in British Northern Ireland and the bulk of his visit in the Republic of Ireland. It was during Biden’s family vacation to Ireland and his visit to his ancestors’ hometowns. He took Hunter and his sister Valerie with him. Biden created an unnecessary kerfuffle while there when he “joked” that he was visiting to ensure that the Brits did not “screw around” with the Good Friday Agreement. What a maroon.
The official White House readout of Biden’s call with the king doesn’t exactly match up with KJP’s story.
‘He talked about how he enjoyed meeting … visiting the Queen, I should say, back in 2021 … he and the first lady at Windsor. And he hoped to visit again soon,’ she said.
‘Actually, during that call, the King offered for him to come and do a state visit, which the president accepted. And so they will see each other again very soon.’
Yet the official White House readout of the call did not describe an invitation or mention a state visit.
It said instead: ‘The president also conveyed his desire to meet with the King in the United Kingdom at a future date.’
Hmm. Yeah, a meeting is nowhere near a state visit. This White House is incapable of telling the truth about anything.
A senior U.S. official confirmed that the trip would not be a state visit.
‘POTUS will have an engagement with the King on his next trip to the UK as we announced earlier this year but it won’t be a State visit,’ they said, using an abbreviation for ‘President of the United States.’
Biden is also expected to meet with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
What happened to Biden’s promise to return to “normal” relationships with our European allies? What happened to “America’s back”? Another Biden fairytale.
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