Amid all the drama and excitement of the incoming Trump administration and the president-elect’s Cabinet picks, sometimes it’s easy to forget that Joe Biden is still the commander-in-chief of the United States and failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris is still his number two.
It's a scary thought that we don't have a functioning leader in these fraught times.
Although Biden is still ostensibly in charge and has shown up at performative events like congratulating the Boston Celtics for their NBA championship win (even if he appeared to forget the name of the team), he has been the forgotten man at events featuring international leaders.
As has been his custom since he first began his Basement Campaign in 2019, he has once again been avoiding the press:
President Joe Biden is walking away from back-to-back summits facing the almost certain prospect that his policy agenda and efforts to promote international cooperation will collapse as soon as Donald Trump takes office in less than two months.
In meetings with foreign leaders at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation in Peru and the G20 meeting here, Biden stuck to his script and avoided any public mention of Trump. But the reality of the situation was underscored by the fact that he left without holding the customary news conference or saying even more than a single, one-word answer to reporters’ questions.
As our Nick Arama reported, it would seem as if the leaders of the world’s other major countries have put the lame-duck president in the rear-view mirror. Rodney Dangerfield said it best back in the day: "I don't get no respect!"
Biden was left out of a group photo of G20 world leaders on Monday, although a senior administration official said the photo was taken earlier than scheduled and the president missed it due to “logistical issues.” Although Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also missed the photo, Biden’s absence was a symbolic suggestion that the world has already moved on from his presidency.
He did manage to show up for a group photo at a different conference on Saturday, but Jill probably wishes he hadn't:
NO RESPECT: President Biden was seen standing in the back corner of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) family photo on Saturday, as other prominent world leaders were spotted front and center: https://t.co/j6aovP2C8W pic.twitter.com/pbW4mDj9d9
— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 17, 2024
He—or whoever is actually running the White House—hasn’t been completely idle, though. His administration has been busy trying to kneecap Donald Trump before he even takes his seat back at the Resolute Desk.
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World leaders largely consider Biden to be irrelevant at this point. Although they’re tip-toeing around the looming presence of Trump, they’re taking pains not to criticize the president-elect because they know that it will be a different world come January 20, 2025:
France’s Emmanuel Macron didn’t mention Trump by name in a speech in Rio on Monday. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also did not mention the president-elect in his public-facing speeches. And British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was careful not to pillory an ally when asked about criticism of support for Ukraine by Donald Trump Jr., deflecting by speaking about the need to counter Russia.
As my colleague Sister Todjah reported, meanwhile, exasperated reporters resorted to screaming at the current president in hopes that he would answer anything, anything at all:
Although a report from Politico tried to claim that Biden had some successes on his South American trip, even they finally had to throw in the towel and admit that Biden was MIA:
But those suggestions that he would interact with the reporters while in South America did not come to fruition. After wrapping up his last meeting in Rio on Tuesday afternoon, Biden walked straight past the traveling press and up the stairs of Air Force One, taking off for Washington, D.C., without having meaningfully engaged with the press corps on the trip.
He ignored repeated invitations from the reporters traveling with him to talk about Trump’s election and to explain his message to world leaders on the incoming administration. Some reporters even resorted, without luck, to holding up handwritten signs to entice the president to come speak to them as he traveled to the Amazon rainforest on Sunday in between the two summits.
“Why are you hiding from the press, Sir?” an exasperated reporter shouted at Biden from a few yards away as he landed in Rio on Sunday evening.
The transition period was, by design, intended to be somewhat lengthy; back in the day, politicians had to travel long distances without the benefit of airplanes. In modern times, transitions have to be methodically thought out, and the keys to power handed off carefully.
That being said, this one cannot be over soon enough, as it’s far past time for Biden to get off the stage and head back to his beach in Delaware and for the president-elect to get to work to carry out the will of the American people.
Until then, it's going to be a dangerous—and frankly embarrassing—time for our country.
