First Lady Jill Biden attended the historic coronation of Charles III on Saturday. Still, TV audiences noticed that the President’s wife did not have a front-row seat to the action. Far from it, Dr. Biden appeared to crane her neck to see over several rows of spectators, having been stuck in Westminster Abbey’s nosebleed section. How come?
According to the New York Post, President Biden “sharply broke” with more than a century of tradition by sending his wife and granddaughter to the crowning ceremony. Since the country’s founding, no American president has ever attended the coronation of a British monarch. However, since the development of the steamship in the 1800s, sending a formal delegation across the Atlantic has been a time-honored tradition.
“It quickly became a precedent to send an official delegation to coronations,” Arianne Chernock told the Post. Chernock is a Boston University professor specializing in America’s historical relationship to the monarchy.
While Chernock says that the decision to send Dr. Jill “is not a snub,” she says the fact that the White House did not select a carefully chosen, formal delegation represents a stark departure from the foreign policy of previous administrations.
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Don't they know that she's a doctor!?
— Eustace H. Plimsoll (@EHPlimsoll1) May 6, 2023
According to the Post, since the coronation of George V in 1911, American delegations have commonly consisted of national figures and military heroes, who were often charged with pursuing shared foreign policy objectives.
In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dispatched former General of the Armies John J. Pershing and diplomat James Gerard to rally an alliance against Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime.
In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower “put a lot of thought and months of planning into his delegation,” according to Chernock, choosing to send national heroes and WWII leaders George Marshall and Omar Bradley to the coronation of Elizabeth II. Flair Magazine publisher Fleur Cowles was also dispatched to represent a new generation of working women in the postwar era.
On the other hand, Joe Biden named no such formal delegation, sending his wife and granddaughter Finnegan (by way of his troubled son Hunter) on a tourist visit to London.
“Joe Biden clearly hasn’t made it a high priority, as past presidents have done,” Chernock said.
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What did Jill Biden do to end up in the cheap seats?#Coronation pic.twitter.com/7ngW4X5eFE
— Trevor Ward 🇺🇦 (@willwrite4cake) May 6, 2023
“That’s no way to treat a doctor,” one Twitter commenter joked, noting Jill’s “cheap seat” in the audience behind Slovakia, Serbia, Macedonia, and Senegal.
“Well, they spread the doctors out for maximum coverage,” another commenter replied.
“They might as well put her in a folding chair in the lobby.” – Shay Patrick Cormac (@ShayCormac_1)
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