Biden’s NRA balk-out
President Biden staged a mock walkout from a meeting with newly elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday when the man from Down Under recalled a trip to the US and a visit with the National Rifle Association more than three decades ago.
During a bilateral sit-down on the sidelines of the Quad Leaders’ Summit in Tokyo, Albanese — who led the Australian Labor Party to victory in Saturday’s general election — regaled the president with a story about coming to America for five weeks as a guest of the State Department.
“You could design a theme [for the program], and mine was I wanted to see the interaction of groups with the US government,” said Albanese, 59. “So I did everything from the National Rifle Association to the Sierra Club to Planned Parenthood to the full — the full kit and caboodle across the spectrum.”
At the mention of the NRA, Biden stood up and began to walk away before pausing to tell Albanese, “You’re a brave man.” “I am,” Albanese responded. “You’re a brave man,” Biden repeated, later adding, “The Sierra Club and the National Rifle . . .”
Albanese called it an opportunity to “see the full diversity of the way that the country operates,” and fondly recalled receiving security briefings in Hawaii and squeezing in a State Department trip to Las Vegas.
In an earlier meeting with Albanese and the two other leaders in the Quad — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kashida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — Biden joked with the Australian leader about attending the high-level summit just days after his election.
“If you fall asleep while you’re here, it’s OK. Because I don’t know how you’re doing it,” Biden said.