“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset, in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two boxcars full of spy equipment in it, is he didn’t know it was there. No, I’m serious,” Biden said. “That’s what’s a great embarrassment for dictators: When they didn’t know what happened.
“… It was blown off course up through Alaska and then down through the United States,” the president told a crowd of donors in California. “And he didn’t know about it. When it got shot down, he was very embarrassed. He denied it was even there.”
Biden’s remarks immediately (and predictably) drew an angry response from China, which dubbed the “dictators” gibe “extremely absurd and irresponsible” and “an open political provocation,” my colleagues Bryan Pietsch, Meaghan Tobin and John Hudson reported.
- The dictator part is pretty straightforward. The claim that Xi and other senior civilian leaders didn’t know initially that a Chinese spy balloon was flying over U.S. soil, apparently gathering intelligence about sensitive American sites, is much more curious.
Biden had said this before
If you’ll permit a little boasting: In Tuesday’s column, we flagged how Biden said much the same thing on Saturday.
- “I don’t think the leadership knew where it was and knew what was in it and knew what was going on,” Biden told reporters. “I think it was more embarrassing than it was intentional.”
- We wondered how plausible this was, noted that China’s military and its diplomats are sending mixed messages, and said “this bears watching” to see whether it was a one-off observation or something to which the gaffe-prone Biden would return.
At the New York Times, Peter Baker reported that Biden had revealed “what United States intelligence agencies had learned about the internal confusion in Beijing during the incident.”
U.S. officials “were surprised on Tuesday night that the president would discuss the sensitive information in a public setting, but one official who has been briefed on the intelligence and spoke on condition of anonymity said Mr. Biden’s remarks accurately reflected the American government’s private assessment,” Peter wrote.
In an authoritarian society, nothing good comes from taking your failures to the big boss. And U.S. intelligence agencies concluded officials in Wuhan hid the extent of the coronavirus outbreak there from Beijing for weeks. So it seems…plausible.
The Daily 202 asked the White House whether Biden had declassified the information before sharing it on Saturday. We did not get an answer.
We’ve seen this Biden movie before
It wasn’t the first time Biden said something surprising about foreign policy while in campaign mode. Or riffed, in seemingly improvised fashion, about Xi’s hold on power.
He hadn’t formally declared his 2024 reelection bid, but, in January, Biden played up serious tensions with allies like South Korea and France over his Inflation Reduction Act in remarks to one of his favorite kinds of audiences: union members.
“You see I’m getting criticized internationally for my maybe focusing too much on America? The hell with that!” the president said.
At an October 2022 Democratic fundraiser in New York, Biden linked Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hints he might use nuclear weapons in Ukraine to the 1962 crisis over the Soviets building missile sites in Cuba.
- “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Biden said. Putin “is not joking when he talks about the potential use of tactical and nuclear weapons, or biological or chemical weapons.”
A few months earlier, in April 2022, Biden talked about Xi to the audience at a Democratic fundraiser in Seattle.
- “He doesn’t have a democratic — with a small ‘d’ — bone in his body. He’s a very smart and calculating guy,” Biden said.
Xi “doesn’t think that democracies can be sustained in the 21st century, in the second quarter of the century, because things are moving so rapidly, so incredibly fast that only — he doesn’t say “autocracy” — only autocracies are able to handle it,” the president continued.
“Because democracies require consensus, and it takes too much time, too much effort to get it together,” Biden said. “And by that time, the event, the circumstance has gone beyond your ability to fix it.”
See an important political story that doesn’t quite fit traditional politics coverage? Flag it for us here.
Russian court rejects WSJ reporter’s appeal
“A Moscow court rejected American journalist Evan Gershkovich’s appeal on Thursday against his pretrial detention, upholding an earlier decision to keep him in custody until August. The Wall Street Journal reporter has been held for nearly three months, as press advocates worldwide call for his release,” Ellen Francis, Robyn Dixon and Lyric Li report.
NTSB hearing probes Ohio train derailment, emergency response
“The National Transportation Safety Board began two days of hearings Thursday into the freight train derailment and chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio, planning to interview about two dozen witnesses to gather evidence about why the train came off the tracks and how emergency crews handled the incident,” Luz Lazo, Ian Duncan, Scott Dance and Lori Aratani report.
Former congressman Will Hurd announces Republican presidential bid
“Former congressman Will Hurd (R-Tex.), a critic of Donald Trump and a former CIA officer, announced a Republican presidential bid on Thursday, promising ‘common-sense leadership’ as he joined a crowded field trying to outmaneuver the former president for the GOP nomination,” John Wagner reports.
Lunchtime reads from The Post
A fragile new phase of abortion in America
“In many respects, as America begins the second year of life after Roe, the full impact of the ruling remains unclear — and in flux,” Caroline Kitchener, Rachel Roubein, Andrew Ba Tran, Caitlin Gilbert and Hannah Dormido report a year after the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, upending abortion access.
- “Interviews with more than 30 key players in the abortion debate, including advocates, lawmakers and doctors, found that the stark lines dividing post-Roe America — with some states restricting abortion access and other states expanding it — have become far blurrier than many anticipated in the 12 months since the ruling.”
Modi’s U.S. visit sends a big, if quiet, signal to China
“Joint statements issued by the United States and India over the last several years have condemned North Korea’s missile tests, called for the Taliban to respect human rights and appealed for an end to the violence in Myanmar. But never has there been an outright mention of India’s primary adversary: China,” reports Ellen Nakashima.
- “Yet it is China in recent years that has supplanted Pakistan as India’s main security threat. While Delhi may wish to minimize accusations that can heighten tensions with leadership in Beijing, China’s clashes with India along its border have turned the world’s two most populous countries into rivals again in the Indo-Pacific.”
Hispanics, Asians drove post-pandemic population growth in D.C. region
“An analysis by William Frey, a senior demographer at the Brookings Institution, showed the White population declining by 668,418 people, compared to a record decline of 809,784 people the previous year. The Hispanic population grew by 1.04 million, compared to 786,622 the year before. Asians and Pacific Islanders increased by 475,679, compared to 240,191 the previous year, and Black people increased by 211, 193 compared to 121,787 the year before,” Tara Bahrampour reports.
Report cites more than 350 anti-LGBTQ incidents over 11 months
“The incidents, which were reported in 46 states and the District of Columbia, included online harassment, gatherings of armed protesters outside drag shows, and bomb threats against hospitals that provide gender transition care. They also included the mass shooting in November at an L.G.B.T.Q. nightclub in Colorado,” the New York Times’s Maggie Astor reports.
- “By far the most frequent targets noted in the report were drag shows and drag performers, who were the victims in 138 incidents. Other common targets were schools and educators, health care facilities and providers, and government buildings and officials. California, Florida, New York and Texas had the most incidents, but they are also the most populous states.”
Did Hunter Biden get off easy? We asked the experts.
“Two former IRS lawyers said Biden’s deal is not an outlier and is similar to what ordinary taxpayers could expect if investigated for similar conduct. Two other former tax officials told POLITICO that Biden could have faced stiffer charges,” Politico’s Betsy Woodruff Swan reports.
- “And while former President Donald Trump is railing against the deal, experts noted an irony: Trump himself likely could have gotten a similar deal if he had cooperated with federal investigators eyeing his retention of government documents. Instead, Trump is accused of obstructing those investigators and is now under indictment and facing significant prison time.”
Modi visits the White House for state visit full of pomp and policy
“Modi, who is just the third world leader Biden has hosted for a state visit, is seeking to bolster his country’s global standing, which White House officials say could in turn benefit U.S. interests. Modi is scheduled to join Biden for a meeting in the Oval Office, engage in a brief joint press conference, address a joint session of Congress, attend a state dinner and hold a separate meeting with Vice President Harris,” Toluse Olorunnipa reports.
Biden world once rolled their eyes at Gavin Newsom. Now, they love the guy.
“It wasn’t that long ago when Newsom annoyed Democratic leaders by failing to sufficiently tamp down speculation that he planned to challenge Biden for the 2024 nomination. Then, Newsom frustrated them anew by suggesting they weren’t prepared to take on escalating Republican attacks on issues Democrats hold dear, including abortion rights. Now, he’s doing the attacking on Biden’s behalf,” Politico’s Christopher Cadelago and Jennifer Haberkorn report.
Where new abortion clinics opened post-Roe, visualized
“When Alan Braid was forced last June to stop providing abortions in San Antonio, the now 78-year-old doctor had already mapped out plans for his post-Roe future. He soon opened two locations close to red-state borders in New Mexico and Illinois, Democrat-led states where abortion is likely to remain protected,” Caroline Kitchener, Rachel Roubein, Andrew Ba Tran, Caitlin Gilbert and Hannah Dormido report.
- “His first new clinic outside of Albuquerque, he said, quickly had a full schedule — with over 90 percent of patients coming from out of state, almost all from Texas.”
With focus on Alito trip, Senate Democrats vow action on ethics bill
“Scrutiny of the Supreme Court intensified Wednesday after Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. took the extraordinary step of writing an op-ed column to defend a luxury fishing trip to Alaska years ago that was partially financed by a politically active billionaire. Senate Democrats said the revelation of the trip, by the news organization ProPublica, was one more reason they would move forward on legislation to tighten ethics rules for the justices,” Robert Barnes and John Wagner report.
- “Although there appears to be little interest in the Republican-led House in forcing changes upon the high court, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said his panel would consider legislation after the Senate returns from its Fourth of July recess.”
GOP: Biden violated First Amendment by pressing Big Tech on covid misinfo
“House Republicans on Wednesday used a hearing on the U.S. government’s coronavirus policies to highlight a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of using social media to censor Americans’ speech in violation of the First Amendment,” Will Oremus reports.
- “The hearing featured testimony from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R), who with his Louisiana counterpart is suing in federal court to block the White House from working with tech companies such as Google and Meta to restrict what Americans can say on social media sites.”
At 12:45 p.m., Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a news conference.
Modi will address a joint session of Congress at 4 p.m.
At 6:30 p.m., the Bidens will greet Modi for the state dinner.
The Bidens’ India state dinner blends Indian, American flavors
“The state dinner, the third of the Biden administration, will be mostly vegetarian, in keeping with the dietary restrictions of its guest of honor. In place of a filet or roast, the main course will be stuffed portobello mushrooms accompanied by a creamy risotto infused with saffron. Guests may select a sumac-roasted sea bass if they choose, along with options for a yogurt sauce punched up with dill and lemon, crisped millet cakes or summer squashes,” Emily Heil reports.
Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.