Joe Biden a No-Show to Greet Japanese PM—and the Preview of a President Harris Is Awful

Twitter video screenshot of Kamala Harris.

On Friday, President Joe Biden was supposed to welcome the first international head of state to visit the White House during his administration. According to the staffer who runs the president’s Twitter account, Biden was looking forward to this press avail:

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I’m not sure what it is about our alliance with Japan that needs renewing. It’s been pretty solid for decades, and President Donald Trump was a staunch ally against Chinese aggression, the biggest threat to the island nation. There were actually protests in Japan on Inauguration Day 2021. The New York Post credits President Trump’s close relationship with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his willingness to stand up to China as the reason for his support in Japan.

Hyperbole aside, Biden was a no-show. Instead, Vice President Kamala Harris welcomed Prime Minister Suga. While she got through it without the hideous cackle that is usually present when she is nervous, her performance was still rather hideous:

Harris is either unprepared or just terrible at extemporaneous speaking. Or it could be a combination. In any case, it is cringeworthy to think she is a heartbeat away from the presidency. At her level, she should be capable of seamlessly stepping in to greet an ally in a polished and appropriate manner. Instead, she showed herself halting and grasping for words.

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It also appears Harris continued to conduct the tour after the formal greeting.

One Twitter user noted that no one met Suga at the door. The prime minister and his staff entered the building alone:

The user contrasted this scene with the way President Trump greeted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe:

This begs the question: where is the president? Can you imagine the media freak-out if President Trump had not greeted a foreign leader as is customary with no explanation? It would have driven an entire 24-hour news cycle about how Trump was destroying the relationship with whatever nation the leader was from.

Biden’s staff thought it was super important to tell America that the president had been briefed on the Indianapolis shooting and to urge them to push for gun control after the arrival of Suga. But there was no explanation for his absence:

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There was also no explanation on the press secretary’s Twitter feed or the White House Correspondents Association feed. Biden did arrive to hold a joint press briefing after a bilateral meeting with Suga. The live stream of the event began over 70 minutes before they appeared.

So Joe is not lost, but he was missing. Will we find out why?

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