What is it about Democrats and hospitality? The White House under them is the scene of many embarrassing episodes.
Which brings us to today, where Argentina's newly elected president came to the White House, not to ask for aid, but to tell them about his plans.
According to Breitbart News:
Javier Milei, the president-elect of Argentina, is scheduled to visit the White House on Tuesday for the final leg of his whirlwind visit to America this week, but President Joe Biden will not be there.
Milei, an outsider leading a populist libertarian movement that toppled both the establishment center-right and the ruling socialist coalition in the November 19 presidential election, will instead meet with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
On Monday, Milei arrived in New Jersey and made his way to New York for a spiritual visit to the Ohel – a Jewish holy site where the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, is buried – then met with Biden Latin America adviser Christopher Dodd and former President Bill Clinton for lunch.
He comes all the way to America from Argentina -- the equivalent of a cross-Siberian flight -- and the best he gets is Bill Clinton?
Biden, the White House said, was "traveling." And indeed he did travel -- to former first lady Rosalynn Carter's funeral which would have been about an hour's flight and not a lengthy affair. He couldn't spare 15 minutes to totter downstairs and say 'hi' to the man, to get the relationship off to a good footing?
The travel excuse is cheesy, too. Historically, first ladies go to other first ladies' funerals. Joe thought it more important to do a first lady's job than meet the new president of South America's second-biggest and best developed country, a nation that has held the designation of a "major non-NATO" ally, and probably one we are going to need things from, be it tech, bases, listening stations, intelligence on the Chicoms, intelligence on the Iranians, or defense of our mutual ally Israel.
It's possible Joe skipped that, probably not wanting to risk another "bathroom incident," stumble and slur his words, get lost, say pervy things, or possibly fall asleep.
Or, he might have simply hated Milei for his message -- that central banks must stop printing money, which in the mind of Joe, bears no connection to inflation. Milei message is all about free markets and the critical importance of liberty. Joe believes in none of that, so maybe he just hated and dreaded what the man might say. And while Milei never delivered any severe insults to Biden during the campaign, he delivered some mild ones. Perhaps Joe holds a grudge.
Milei did state on his way that he wasn't coming to the states to look for money, so greeting him should have been easy.
When Milei returns to Argentina, he might just get on the phone and call up the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele. They'd have plenty to talk about -- El Salvador successfully dollarized its country several years ago and recently got rid of crime, two issues Argentina is keen to solve.
But they could also talk about what crappy treatment they got from Joe Biden. Early on in Biden's presidency, Bukele came to Washington to talk border and other matters -- and couldn't get the time of day from the likes of the Biden White House. Both men were treated shabbily by Creepy Joe and his White House. It's a lousy pattern of snubbing Latin American presidents, which in light of the border surge, seems like a pig-stupid thing to do with no solution in sight.
Biden carries on the Obama tradition of treating allied leaders shabbily when they pay a visit to the White House: Recall that when Israel's prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu, came to the White House for a visit, President Obama was completely unfamiliar with the concept of treating an ally with basic decency. He made Bibi sit in a waiting room for hours while he ... ate his food, not sharing a bite of it with his guest.
How disgusting is that? It's the same behavior now that we see Biden dishing out to Javier Milei, who will have stories about the sheer crappiness of his treatment to swap with Bibi, as well.
While at the White House, Milei will get to talk to Jake Sullivan, Biden's National Security Advisor, probably because he calls the foreign policy shots and serves as the lightbulb in the Biden administration. Sullivan claims that all's hunky dory with Milei.
Kindness and courtesy is basic to world leaders and treating one shabbily at the White House, even one that one disagrees with, is inexcusable. Pope Francis had no problem congratulating Milei, even though Milei insulted him severely during his campaign. That was common courtesy. Slow Joe, on the other hand, took three days to congratulate Milei on his big-margin victory in Argentina a little more than a week ago. Biden should have been able to manage a handshake, but he refused to do it. Now he expects all to go swimmingly in the relationship that follows.
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