With Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving world leader in the West, being placed under medical supervision, U.S. President Joe Biden has published a glowing tribute on social media – to Barack Obama.
UPDATE: 5:05 p.m. — After much delay, White House spokesman John Kirby has said that President Biden’s “thoughts are solidly and squarely with the Queen today and her family.” Biden’s personal and official social media accounts remain silent on the issue.
President Biden, who believes himself to be Irish despite his family progenitor in the Americas likely being an Englishman, has often appeared to harbour anti-British sentiment, declining to give a comment to the BBC on his election with a smirking reference to his supposed Irishness and ejecting a bust of Sir Winston Churchill from the Oval Office on taking up his post, for example.
Now, his first response on social media to news that the Queen, 96, has been placed “under medical supervision” by doctors in Scotland and her family are travelling from all quarters to her bedside has been to tweet a tribute not to her, but to his former boss, Barack Obama.
“There are few people I’ve ever known with more integrity, decency, and moral courage than [Barack Obama],” he gushed on his personal Twitter account.
Biden’s official @POTUS presidential account, meanwhile, has paid tribute only to himself, highlighting jobs numbers and sniping at his Republican opposition.
As of the time of publication — well into mid-afternoon British time — it has been left to the Biden administration’s local representative, Ambassador Jane Hartley, to respond to the British monarch’s health crisis, quite some time after most major political figures in the country.
“I join the people of the United Kingdom, the United States, and across the world in sending our thoughts and prayers to Her Majesty The Queen and her family,” Ambassador Hartley tweeted.
This story is developing…
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.