President Joe Biden brushed his decision not to attend King Charles III’s coronation on Saturday during a softball interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle by saying: ‘I told him I couldn’t be there because I have this going on.’
Biden, 80, said that he told the king that he would be in the United Kingdom during the summer during the NATO conference. ‘He’s a good acquaintance and we’ve worked together on environmental issues,’ the president said of King Charles III.
The president dispatched his wife to represent the US at the celebrations in London. No American president has ever attended a British coronation. First Lady Jill Biden’s first stop was a meeting with Akshata Murty, the wife of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
