You’re still president for a couple of months, Joe…
The White House released a statement this week after President Biden was noticeably absent from the G-20 Summit “family photo” — the last G-20 of his presidency.
The White House is blaming the absence on “logistical issues.”
“Due to logistical issues, they took the family photo early before all the leaders had arrived. So a number of leaders weren’t actually there when they took the photo,” the official said.
From Fox News:
The official emphasized Biden missed the photo because of bad timing, not because he wanted to avoid taking a picture with some of the U.S.’ top rivals, including Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov or Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Biden’s absence left Jinping front and center among the rows of leaders poised against blue skies and blue water in Rio de Janeiro.
Lavrov stood in the back row, less visible.
Biden and [Canadian PM] Trudeau arrived together at the designated spot for the photo, standing and looking about for a time. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also did not join in the group photo, a set piece of such summits.
Notably, Biden did not arrive via the red carpet ramp used by other world leaders. Instead, he was seen taking a sharp right turn on his way to the gathering, declining to use the ramp which led to the entrance of the building.
The official said the president did not use the ramp “due to security concerns.”
“Several leaders from high threat — from countries that face high threats did not take the open ramp and instead took a different red carpet route,” the official said.
Biden’s photo-op gaffes are piling up. Over the weekend, the outgoing POTUS made headlines for being placed in the back corner of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) family as other prominent world leaders were spotted front and center.
