is to make sure ukraine continues to be able to hold off the russian invasion, to be able to make advances in reclaiming its territory, and making sure that russia is constantly on the back foot. so if there is some negotiations and ukraine should come to those negotiations in a position of strength. indeed, and we re watching the pomp and ceremony as the bidens and the macrons, you saw them emerge down the stairs, pretty resplendent outfits by jill biden and mrs. macron. mrs. macron s outfit is particularly stunning. i have to make some sartorial comments because i feel like i have do it because they look really wonderful. does this mean as much as it used to in your view, bobby, because you know, america and americans tend to put a lot of stock in this kind of ceremony, in this kind of tradition. in the post-trump era, where he kind of broke the idea of tradition and broke the idea of sort of splendor and broke the
extremely thoughtful gifts. the macrons bought a cd and a vinyl from a film from the 60s that the bidens saw on their very first date. the bidens saw on their very first date- first date. hopefully a good christmas first date. hopefully a good christmas bonus first date. hopefully a good christmas bonus for - first date. hopefully a good j christmas bonus for getting that one! , , , that one! i m guessing they didn t do that one! i m guessing they didn t do the that one! i m guessing they didn t do the research - that one! i m guessing they didn t do the research on i that one! i m guessing they i didn t do the research on their own! and the bidens offered the macrons a custom mirror made from wood, and a custom vinyl of some of the greatest american artists. so it truly was a presidential courtship. interesting. you can get on touch with us on twitter on which of those two gifts you would prefer. thank you. stay with us on bbc news, still to come. will smith has faced his f
ah. i remember it. now, the bidens gift to the macrons include some american vinyl, although, we don t have the reporting on what the albums were. for the record, this whole tradition of world leaders trading vinyl is something we can all really get behind and not just because it s generally awesome, but because it serves the goal of diplomacy a whole lot better than, say, weirdly endless and subtly hostile handshakes that turn into totally awkward three-way handshakes that sorts of devolve into nothingness. no one needs to do that again ever, ever. that does it for us tonight. we ll see you again tomorrow. way too early with jonathan lemire is coming up next.
and former chief of protocol at the state department for president obama, capricia marshal. so kelly, wednesday night double date for the bidens and macrons. a fancy state dinner. what s the impact on getting a united front regarding ukraine and what about biden potentially being open to talk with vladimir putin? in so many ways, president macron is the leader of europe at the moment. for a long time, we thought of that as angela merkel, who was chancellor of germany. now the landscape in europe has changed. great britain has gone through some turnover in the prime minister role. and president macron has been a leader there and has been someone who has been right with president biden when it comes to unity on ukraine. and he s also been someone who has kept a channel of communication open with vladimir putin. one of the french reporters at
during harris s trip to paris last year. later on, president biden and the first lady joined macron and his wife for dinner at an italian restaurant in georgetown. biden tweeted a picture of the double date. the bidens will then join the macrons for a state dinner. president biden and president macron will have a series of meetings at the white house today as well as a joint news conference. joining us now, white house reporter for politico, eli stokels, you wrote with a coworker of yours who can only be described as devastatingly handsome, a preview of the meeting. and macron and biden have a seemingly pretty strong personal camaraderie but there are some flash points of tension lingering underneath the surface. good morning, and yes, as we wrote for politico this