President Joe Biden faced a flurry of questions during his meeting Wednesday with new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over George Clooney’s shocking op-ed calling for him to step aside.
Biden’s response to calls for his resignation in Congress was: “AFL-CIO. Go, go, go!” His response suggests he has more faith in the powerful union, which issued a statement saying it was in “strong solidarity” with him on July 3, following his debate fiasco.
The cacophony in the Oval Office came as reporters had their first sustained opportunity to ask Biden about the Hollywood star’s call for him to drop out of the race, just weeks after helping him raise nearly $30 million at a fundraiser in Los Angeles.
He is certain to face more questions on the matter when he holds what the White House is now calling a “big-name news conference” on Thursday at the NATO summit it is hosting in Washington.
“Joe Biden is a hero; he saved democracy in 2020. We need him to do it again in 2024,” Clooney said. wrote in his powerful op-ed in the New York Times.
“I love Joe Biden… But the one battle he can’t win is the fight against time. None of us can. It’s devastating to say, but the Joe Biden I stood with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate,” she said.
Biden was questioned about actor George Clooney’s call for him to withdraw from his re-election campaign
Biden’s meeting with Starmer, and the brief press availability at the start of the conversation, was his last chance to show he has what it takes to win in November.
Starmer congratulated Biden on a “really successful summit.” The two men joked about football, with Biden noting that the two countries use different words for the sport and Starmer talking about watching part of the Euro semi-final with his Dutch counterpart.
Biden offered a banal response: “By the way, football has become incredibly popular here in the United States.”
Starmer spoke about the “special relationship” between the United States and Britain.
“There’s a lot of work going on to strengthen ties with Europe. The transatlantic alliance is good for all of us. I think it’s a great idea that we’re going to work on together,” Biden said.
Biden highlighted his support for labor in response to the setback
Lifelong Democrat George Clooney called on Biden to drop out of the 2024 race after their disastrous debate, even after helping him raise $28 million at a fundraiser in June.
With his own political future at stake, Biden returned to his diplomatic wheelhouse, greeting world leaders at the NATO summit in Washington on Wednesday.
After a number of elected Democrats called for Biden to resign, the president is using the summit he is hosting in Washington to try to demonstrate his command of the global stage, as well as the vigor that critics in his own party found absent during his disastrous debate in Atlanta.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Defence Secretary John Healey met at a major forum. It was their first official meeting since Starmer’s Labour Party ended 14 years of Conservative rule.
Earlier, Biden welcomed the leaders of the 31 NATO countries for a series of smiling photos, accompanied by Outgoing Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg shook hands.
Among them was Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who welcomed Biden and other G7 nations during the summit in Bari, Italy.
A clip of the two went viral when it showed Meloni placing his hands on Biden’s arm and guiding him toward a group of leaders for a photo following a parachute demonstration, after Biden walked away a few feet to speak with a nearby skydiver.
Over here: President Joe Biden greeted Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the NATO summit in Washington. She greeted him last month at the G7 in Bari, Italy, and at one point guided him to a photo op
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called it a “cheap fake” when asked about it by DailyMail.com. “The president walked over to give a thumbs-up to the divers who had just landed right in front of him,” she said at a news conference last month.
Starmer’s meeting in the Oval Office was a chance for Biden to get relations with the first Labour government in 14 years on a firm footing.
In a sign of how carefully the White House watches the image of the conference, the White House… delayed when a Republican National Committee X account compared him to a “wax figure” with a short video clip of the summit.
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates posted the RNC video, which is carefully cropped, and added his own link. That link shows the president waiting and standing, arms at his sides, before greeting and shaking hands with German Prime Minister Olaf Scholtz.
Biden smiles and raises eyebrows during handshake with Scholtz.
Biden also participated in the the traditional ‘family photo’, which required looking into a camera for eight seconds.
His own political fortunes will follow him at the top, with world leaders as well as his allies and enemies in Congress watching to see whether he is likely to be in power next year.
Biden did not respond to a question about whether he still supports former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi following her comments on MSNBC, but he did shake his fist in a show of confidence.
Biden scheduled his first official meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer (left)
Meloni guided Biden as he welcomed him at the G7 summit in Italy
Biden has spent his career engaging with foreign leaders, including as vice president for two terms and as former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
On his way to the summit, which is being held just minutes from the White House, Trump made it clear that domestic policy is his top priority. He stopped by the AFL-CIO headquarters, where he spoke about the American economy and the contributions of American workers.
During his opening remarks at the summit, Biden read from printed statements but occasionally looked up to reinforce a point.
“I will now ask the press to leave so I can begin,” he said in concluding his remarks.
