10 hours ago
5
Twenty years ago this month, President
George W Bush
landed in Rome to pay his respects to a deceased pope, John Paul II. He was the first sitting president to attend a
papal funeral
. But he was not alone: He had asked his predecessor,
Bill Clinton
, to ride along on Air Force One, along with his father, George HW Bush.
Together, the three presidents sped to St Peter's Basilica. Kneeling, they prayed side by side before the pope's body.
It was a remarkable display of
American bipartisan unity
, the kind of kinship among political rivals that feels unimaginable today. And things played out differently when President Donald Trump landed in Rome on Friday night to attend Pope Francis' funeral. He was accompanied by his wife, Melania, and a clutch of senior aides. But his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, and his wife, Jill, flew in on their own.
Considering Trump had recently stripped Biden of his security clearances and regularly denounces him, it is understandable they did not share a ride to Rome. When former President Jimmy Carter died in Dec, Trump said he had passed away "a happy man" in the knowledge that "he wasn't the worst. President Joe Biden was."
Biden has often talked about his Roman Catholic upbringing. He saw Francis briefly in Italy in June, weeks before the disastrous debate with Trump that led to his decision to drop out of the race. Biden had talked about returning to Rome to get the pope's blessing before leaving the White House, but he cancelled the trip because of the Los Angeles wildfires in Jan.
Asked on the flight to Rome whether he planned to talk with Biden at the funeral, Trump sounded surprised his predecessor was attending. "It's not high on my list," he said. "It's really not." The contrast was stark. Bush was eager to ensure Clinton was part of the full presidential party. Not only did the two men attend the funeral together, Clinton sat in on the highly classified presidential daily brief on the flight over.
English (US) · 