Names and faces
■ Joe Biden made his first late-night show appearance as president Friday, condemning partisanship in Congress and endorsing a song featuring rapper Megan Thee Stallion to encourage Americans to get covid shots.
“Not a joke,” he said on “The Tonight Show” with comedian Jimmy Fallon. Appearing virtually in the taped interview, Biden got a brief break from criticism over his declining poll numbers and a spike in inflation.
The president used the opportunity to celebrate the passage of his bipartisan infrastructure package and emphasize the importance of voting rights as well as urge vaccinations. “The bottom line is that the way to avoid the virus is to get two shots and then get the booster shot,” Biden told Fallon. He added that if more people listened to the song that Fallon created with singer Ariana Grande and Megan Thee Stallion, “It was a … Masked Christmas,” it would help combat vaccine hesitancy. Biden also took the opportunity to take a slight shot at the partisan divisions that have become the norm in Congress, after Fallon said he saw Democrats and Republicans cordially socializing at the Kennedy Center Honors last Sunday. The president said the extremist views displayed by some members of the GOP had eroded bipartisanship. Biden, who as president will often add emphasis during his speeches or interviews by saying “That’s not hyperbole” or “It’s not a joke,” has shown a willingness to joke around a bit on late-night shows. He told Fallon how his family was not used to having every meal made for them in the White House and that he reached an agreement with “the guys who run the kitchen” that the first family would make breakfast for themselves. “You make your own eggs?” Fallon asked. ”Well, I don’t — Jill does,” Biden said, referring to the first lady.
■ Hundreds of people lined up Saturday in the English city of Bristol to get the latest work by elusive street artist Banksy — a T-shirt created to help four people charged over the toppling of a local statue of a slave trader. The gray shirt features the word Bristol above the empty plinth on which the statue of 17th-century slave merchant Edward Colston long stood, with a rope hanging from it and debris scattered around. Anti-racism demonstrators pulled down the statue and dumped it in Bristol harbor in June 2020. Four people have been charged with criminal damage and are going on trial this week. “I’ve made some souvenir shirts to mark the occasion,” Banksy said on social media Friday. “Available from various outlets in the city from tomorrow. All proceeds to the defendants so they can go for a pint.” The T-shirts cost 25 pounds ($33) and are limited to one per customer.