22 Jan 2021
Prime Minister Boris Johnson would not criticise President Joe Biden for removing the bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office a symbol of strong Anglo-American relations despite having done so when former President Barack Obama made the same gesture years before.
Mr Biden removed the bust of the wartime British leader, whose mother was American, from his White House office on Wednesday, replacing it with several other figures including those of Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Former President Donald Trump, an Anglophile, had famously returned the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office at his 2017 inauguration after it had been removed by his predecessor Barack Obama. So proud was Mr Trump of its return, that he posed with it alongside Britain’s then-Prime Minister Theresa May on her visit to Washington, DC.
Reaction to Churchill bust removal muted for Biden after outrage for Obama
It had once been a transatlantic art scandal or at least various actors of questionable intent would have you believe it was.
Overheated, confusing and laden in the end with blatant racism, the case of the White House bust of Winston Churchill still persists.
President Joe Biden has removed it from the Oval Office after four years standing sentry under his predecessor, who thought he looked something like the wartime prime minister.
An Oval Office redesign brought in new busts instead: Latino civil rights leader Cesar Chavez, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Glad-handing Biden begins foreign diplomacy with the telephone
President Joe Biden had been inside the White House for only two hours on Wednesday before finding an opportunity to recall one of his many intimate meals with a foreign leader who, now they are both presidents, can officially be called a counterpart.
“When I was with Xi Jinping and I was on the Tibetan plateau with him and he asked me in a private dinner, he and I, and we each had an interpreter, he said, ‘Can you define America for me?’ ” Biden recounted during a swearing-in ceremony for new staffers. He said he responded simply: “Possibilities.”
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Biden redecorates the Oval Office with a return of the blue rug and no sign of Winston Churchill
It includes busts of Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert Kennedy, Cesar Chavez, Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt. By Rónán Duffy Thursday 21 Jan 2021, 4:31 PM Jan 21st 2021, 1:32 PM 114,855 Views 64 Comments
Updated Jan 21st 2021, 4:31 PM Blue carpet has returned to the Oval Office. Source: Alex Brandon/PA Images
JOE BIDEN’S WHITE House team has been busy redecorating.
Before President Biden had even set foot inside the Oval Office for the first time as US commander-in-chief, his team had changed the décor to what they say is a reflection of his priorities.