But to lure him to Los Angeles for a summit of boycott-stricken regional leaders, Biden agreed to a one-on-one meeting.
Biden’s meeting with Bolsonaro showed the lengths he went to go to present a unified picture of the Western Hemisphere at a conference where there was often discontent over performance. And its coincidental timing, along with a House hearing on the events of January 6, 2021 – where the autocratic tendencies of the previous US president were exposed in sometimes shocking fashion – have prompted efforts to promote democracy in an increasingly fragmented region. To highlight the difficulty of using the example of America. ,
Biden was able to meet some important commitments this week, including an agreement on migration that came together at the last minute. But questions over attendance and the field’s disparate priorities were still on display enough. And Biden’s political struggles were never far from the surface.
Here are three takeaways from this week’s America Summit.
Trump lingers
Trump, like June’s gloom at this week’s summit in Southern California, continued hearing from his Brazilian hero, exposing his misinformation plan to persistent questions about U.S. commitment to the region, which he mostly ignored. Gave.
Biden worked proactively and explicitly to convince his counterparts that he was taking a different approach.
“I think there is one means by which we can reduce the damage we have done in the last four years, when it was not taken very seriously – the relationship,” he said during a meeting with the leaders of the Caribbean.
A little later, he said during the summit’s inaugural session that he wanted to “discuss proposals that I think are a far cry from what we have seen from our previous US administrations.”
This week’s summit was for the type of presidential work Trump used little for during his time in office. He left the US summit when he was in office and complained to his allies about attending G7 and G20 meetings, questioning his point of view.
Even President Barack Obama sometimes dreaded the kind of huge summit where he would be left to sit for hours listening to the endless speeches of other world leaders. He was often seen biting nicotine gum as he sat in his seat.
There was no question that Biden would reverse that trend. He said this week that he often reminded Obama that “all politics is personal” — and accomplishing anything necessary to show really personal.
“It makes a difference when you know someone,” he said at the start of a dinner held at the Getty Villa’s Mediterranean Garden near Malibu. “Whether you agree or not, looking into their eyes and understanding a little more of what’s in their heart makes a difference.”
Biden was in fact so busy meeting his fellow leaders that he completely missed Thursday night’s January 6 hearing, while Canada’s prime minister was told earlier in the day that the event was “on my country”. will capture it.”
“There was no time,” Biden said with a shoulder when CNN asked if he had caught any coverage.
questions of unity
Biden arrived in Los Angeles hoping to use the new economic and migration announcements to demonstrate unity in a field of fragmented politics and, at times, mired in skepticism of the United States.
And by the end of the summit, 20 leaders had signed an agreement that provides a road map for handling the region’s large migration flows, perhaps the most significant achievement of a gathering whose relevance has been questioned prematurely by many. was raised.
Yet the decision of many leaders to boycott the summit, which Mexico’s top officials and three Central American countries have worked hard to cultivate, remained a visible unshakeable point. He declined to attend because Biden had refused invitations to autocratic leaders from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
On the way to the summit, White House officials were dismayed that the drama on the participants was putting important issues at stake. Yet when it came time for the leaders to gather inside the Los Angeles Convention Center, discord was evident.
And on Friday evening, First Lady Jill Biden complained that her husband’s news coverage was “so inappropriate.”
“Every leader came up to Joe and said what a difference you made and said how we can work together,” she told Democratic donors in a backyard in Brentwood.
As Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris watched from only feet away, Belize’s prime minister called it “unforgivable” that not all of America’s countries were invited. He said the summit’s power had been “diminished” by his absence.
Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said during a speech later in the event that the rules for future summits should be changed to prevent nations from opting out. “We certainly would have wished for a different summit of America. The silence of those who were absent is calling to us,” he said.
The remarks did not come as a surprise to US officials, who were already aware of the disagreements and anticipated that some leaders would broadcast them publicly. Before the summit, some Biden aides suggested there would be a certain amount of political currency among leaders who have domestic audiences who often doubt the United States.
And as they left the stage, Fernandez and Biden shared a friendly handshake, a sign that behind the scenes things weren’t as tense as they appeared.
“Despite the disagreement, consider what we heard today,” Biden said after sitting through speeches from his counterparts. “We heard almost complete agreement on the real things we should be doing.”
disgusting politics
In the land of $7-per-gallon gasoline, Biden was never far from his biggest political obligation. And while foreign policy can sometimes act as an escape hatch for politically troubled presidents, a vulnerable American leader is not helped by ostracism and public embarrassment from his global counterparts.
Many of the problems Biden hoped to address at his summit are also powerful political problems, including a large influx of migrants to the southern border and inflation made worse by unreliable supply chains.
During a break from his summit hosting duties, Biden made a detour to the Port of Los Angeles to tackle what his team sees as the most pressing current issue: everything from gas to groceries. high prices for
He blamed Russia, oil companies, shipping groups and Republicans for rising costs, and insisted he was doing what he could to tame inflation as new numbers showed prices rallying last month.
To coincide with his visit to the West, Biden’s aides booked an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show, which is often seen as an opportunity to show a politician’s lighter side.
Yet Biden’s appearance was a grim interview on gun control and abortion rights, two other difficult issues on which the president has few options to act alone, demanding that even his most ardent supporters Let him do that.
“I don’t want to emulate Trump’s abuse of Constitution, constitutional authority,” Biden told Kimmel on Wednesday as the late night host asked why he couldn’t issue an executive order like Trump, who “handed him out like candy . “
When Kimmel asked how you play Monopoly when one side “won’t pass” or play by the rules, Biden said: “You have to send them to jail.”