The Japanese outlet The Yomiuri Shimbun is reporting that Biden will skip the ceremonies even though it is typical of American leadership to attend such events. The Biden administration is instead looking to send First Lady Jill Biden in his stead.
This is also unsurprising, considering that Mrs.Biden has been confusingly “filling in” for Mr. Biden in many diplomatic instances. A social media post showing her “preparing” for the G7 Summit caused many to ask exactly why the unelected wife of the President would be preparing to do his job.
Redstate‘s “Bonchie” reported on the strange incident, giving his own opinion as to what was really going on there.
I’m not sure how it hasn’t dawned on me before, but I think I have the reason figured out behind this campaign to make Jill Biden seem so presidential – I think she’s going to run for president.
Really, just hear me out. We know that Jill Biden is nakedly ambitious at a level we haven’t seen since Hillary Clinton, whose presidential run we are all familiar with. She drug her husband through a deeply uncomfortable 2020 presidential campaign that he was clearly not physically and mentally up for. As president, things have only gotten worse for Joe Biden, yet Jill Biden’s ambition has hardly slowed down. Rather, she’s seemingly put herself ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris when it comes to assignments and publicity.
That leads me to the next aspect of this – Jill Biden hates Kamala Harris. Just a few weeks ago, it came out that the First Lady had dropped obscenities during the 2020 campaign to describe Harris’ behavior in trying to paint Jill Biden as a racist. Since then, you’ve hardly ever seen Jill Biden appear with Kamala Harris. And while Harris is given cleanup duty in Guatemala with the disaster at the border hung around her neck, Jill Biden remains unscathed, headed to the G7 to apparently play a major role. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
The Yomiuri Shimbun also indicated that Mrs.Biden may fill in at the Olympics for her husband as she is already preparing for a diplomatic trip to Japan to meet with their Prime Minister.
The Japanese and U.S. governments are making arrangements for a visit to Japan by U.S. first lady Jill Biden that would coincide with the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics on July 23, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
The two sides are looking into having the first lady attend the opening ceremony as well as meet with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and other officials during her stay, according to sources.
U.S. President Joe Biden himself will not be attending the ceremony, but the dispatching of his wife in his place sends a message of the importance of the relationship with Japan.
I’m sure that Japanese media has no other choice but to frame it as an honor that the American President would send his wife in his place. However, the reality is that it is more of a diplomatic dismissal than an honor. Mrs.Biden is not an official representative of the American people, and while her presence as a wife is always a welcome addition to a presidential visit, her importance ends there. She has no mandate, has not earned one vote and has no official power in the governing decisions of the United States of America. It is in fact an insult to diplomatic relations and my years of experience in reporting on politics tells me that inside Prime Minister Suga’s office, his aides and representatives most likely do not view this as a unique honor.
Of course, given Mrs.Biden’s increasing presence on the diplomatic scene it is becoming increasingly obvious that she is filling in for him more and more not because he doesn’t want to go to these types of events alone, but because he can’t.
Let’s just be honest about that.
Joe Biden Has Already Called a Lid on His Olympics Appearance – RedState
US Olympic Athlete Turns Her Back on Flag During Playing of Anthem
During the Olympic trials yesterday in Eugene, Oregon, the bronze winner in the hammer throw, Gwen Berry, turned away from the American flag during the playing of the national anthem, didn’t put her hand over her heart and toward the end, put a shirt over head that said “Activist Athlete” on it.
Not only that, she then said how disturbed she was that they played the anthem at all, acting as though it was played just to annoy her.
‘I feel like it was a set-up, and they did it on purpose,’ said Berry, who finished third to make her second U.S. Olympic team and is an outspoken activist on racial justice issues. ‘I was pissed, to be honest.’ [….]
‘They had enough opportunities to play the national anthem before we got up there,’ she said. ‘I was thinking about what I should do. Eventually I stayed there and I swayed, I put my shirt over my head. It was real disrespectful.’
‘It really wasn’t a message. I didn’t really want to be up there. Like I said, it was a setup. I was hot, I was ready to take my pictures and get into some shade,’ added Berry.
‘They said they were going to play it before we walked out, then they played it when we were out there,’ Berry said. ‘But I don’t really want to talk about the anthem because that’s not important. The anthem doesn’t speak for me. It never has.’
The anthem was played at that time according to a pre-announced schedule. But, that isn’t the point. She wanted the playing of it catered to her being disturbed by it, so she didn’t even have to hear it. How dare they play it for the country or the other athletes who want to represent their country!
If the anthem doesn’t speak for her, then why is she there, wanting to represent the United States? If you don’t want to represent our country, why are you even trying out? This isn’t just a question of someone being free to speak their mind; it’s picking a representative for the U.S. team, a person who’s supposed to represent the United States in competition, and she apparently has issues with that. It doesn’t seem like it would be hard to find people who truly want to represent the United States.
This wasn’t Berry’s first such issue. She previously raised a fist in 2019 at the Pan American Games and got suspended by the U.S. Olympic Committee. But, they reversed that in March and said people could ‘protest’ at the games, including raising fists and kneeling. She even demanded that they give her an apology, and USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland complied.
Berry raised her fist during the trials on Thursday, as well.
The response of the U.S. officials to all this? ‘We’re thrilled with the women’s hammer throw team that selected themselves for the Games,’ said Susan Hazzard, spokesperson for USA Track and Field.
This isn’t the first Olympic athlete, about whom we have written, taking a position against the flag or the anthem. Chelsea Wolfe, a transgender athlete who is an alternate to the BMX team, previously threatened to burn an American flag at the podium, if given the chance to compete and make it there.
The U.S. also didn’t seem to have had an issue with Megan Rapinoe for her social justice posturing — despite her own questionable tweet about Asians.
It’s actually against Olympic Rules to inject politics, because the whole concept of the Olympics is supposed to be meeting on the field of sport and transcending politics. Rule 50 states that: “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”
But you can bet that we will be revisiting this issue again — when there’s another demonstration on the field or at the podium.
US Olympic Athlete Turns Her Back on Flag During Playing of Anthem – RedState
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