Biden meets new UK prime minister Keir Starmer and is reunited with Italy's Giorgia Meloni at NATO summit... so will he do enough to prove he can lead for four more years?
- Biden's summit performance is being closely watched amid Democratic fears
- He welcomed Meloni after she guided him at parachutist event in Bari, Italy
With his own political future on the line, President Joe Biden went back to his diplomatic wheelhouse and glad-handed world leaders at the NATO summit in Washington Wednesday.
After a string of elected Democrats called on Biden to step down, the president is using the summit he is hosting in Washington to try to demonstrate his mastery of the global scene as well as the vigor critics in his own party found absent during his Atlanta debate disaster.
He scheduled a high-powered meeting with Britain's new Prime Minister Keir Starmer, along with Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Defence Secretary John Healey. It was their first official meeting since Starmer's Labour Party ended 14 years of conservative rule.
Earlier, Biden welcomed leaders of the 31 NATO countries for a series of grip-and-grin photos, joined by outgoing Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg shook hands.
Among them was Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who played host to Biden and other G7 nations while hosting that summit in Bari, Italy.
A clip of the two went viral when it showed Meloni placing her hands on Biden's arm and guiding him back toward a group of leaders for a photo after a parachute demonstration, after Biden walked a few feet away to speak to a parachutist nearby.
Right this way: President Joe Biden greeted Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the NATO summit in Washington. She hosted him last month at the G7 in Bari, Italy, guiding him toward a photo-op at one point
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 divers who had just landed right in front of him,' she said at a press briefing last month.
The Starmer meeting in the Oval Office was an opportunity for Biden to begin relations with the the first Labour government in 14 years on a firm footing.
In a sign of how carefully the White House is watching the optics of the confab, the White House pushed back when a Republican National Committee X account compared him to a 'wax figure' with a short video clip from the summit.
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates posted the RNC's video, which is closely cropped, and added his own link. That link shows the president waiting and standing, arms at his side, before greeting and shaking hands with German Prime Minister Olaf Scholtz.
Biden grins and raises his eyebrows during the grip-and-grin with Scholtz.
Biden also took part in the traditional ‘family photo,’ which required them to look into a camera for eight seconds.
His own political fortunes are following him at the summit, with world leaders as well as his allies and foes in Congress watching to see whether he is likely to be in power next year.
Biden didn’t respond to a question about whether he still has support for former Speaker Nancy Pelosi following her comments on MSNBC, but shook his fist in a show of confidence.
Biden scheduled his first official meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer (l)
Meloni guided Biden while hosting him at the G7 summit in Italy
Biden has spent a career engaging with foreign leaders, as a two-term vice president and former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
He sent a signal that domestic politics are his top priority en route to the summit, being held a few minutes' drive from the White House. He stopped by the AFL-CIO, where he talked up the U.S. economy and the contributions of U.S. workers.
During his first remarks to the summit, Biden read from printed remarks but occasionally looked up to reinforce a point.
'I will now ask the press to depart so that we can get started,' he said at the conclusion of his comments.
