Biden feels force after star’s visit
Star Wars actor Mark Hamill dropped by the White House yesterday for a visit with US President Joe Biden and walked away with a pair of the president’s aviator sunglasses and a greater respect for the office.
“I love the merch,” he said, taking off the glasses during a quick appearance at the White House daily press briefing following his visit with Biden.
Hamill, 72, famous for playing Luke Skywalker, kidded with reporters that he’d take a few questions — as long as they weren’t about Star Wars.
“I was honoured to be asked to come to the White House to meet the president,” he said.
He’s been to the White House before, during the Carter and Obama administrations, but he’d never checked out the Oval Office, and that was quite something, he said.
The actor said Biden told him to call him “Joe”, to which Hamill offered an alternative suggestion: “Can I call you Joe-bi-Wan Kenobi?”
“He liked that,” said Hamill. Both Hamill and the White House were vague about his reason for visiting. But Hamill, a Democrat and Biden supporter with a huge social media following, has been posting about the president’s re-election campaign this week.
“May The First Not Quench Your Thirst For Biden’s Re-election!” he wrote on May 1.
On Friday he posted: “May The Third Be Absurd That The Guy Who Tried To Steal A Fair Election Is Allowed To Run Again,” a reference to Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Yesterday was unofficially Star Wars Day, in part because of the famous Jedi phrase “May the force be with you.” The pun goes, “May the fourth be with you.”