Pool Reports of June 15, 2021

Pool Report #1 - King of Belgium's palace

President Biden came to the Royal Palace of Brussels to meet His Majesty King Philippe, King of the Belgians. (This is the "working" palace, not to be confused with the King's WFH palace.) The two men were joined by Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

Your pool did not travel with POTUS here; he appeared at 11:11 in a grand hall, long on gold leaf and and a series of chandeliers that ran in a line down to the next ballroom. There was small talk, which pool could not hear, and lots of cameras clicking for a formal picture. Then POTUS moved over to a small desk to sign the guest book. He said nothing to pool, and retreated with the King and the Prime Minister. Pool now holding in the vans.

Pool Report #2 - EU

POTUS arrived at the modem Europa building, and walked around the Lantern, the central sphere at the middle of the lobby. He walked past the flags with :Charles Michel, President of the European Council, and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission.

They stopped and spoke briefly; acoustics were poor and so we will send another report with the conversation picked up by microphones.

The president said "America is back" and answered a question about his meeting with Erdogan and Turkey's presence in Afghanistan after the American withdrawal with a vague reference to how they had "long discussions" that he felt good about. He said "I'll let the Turks tell you about it."

Pool report # 3, comments at Europa building

With thanks to be Sebastian Smith of AFP, our WHCA pooler.

Here is what we picked up. Check against transcript.

Charles Michel
"America is back on the global scene
it's great news for allies, also great news for the world"

Biden
we have great opportunity to work with EU as well as Nato and we feel very good about it
it's overwhelming the interest of the US of America to have a great relationship with Nato and EU

VDL
the fact that you're coming so early in your mandate underlines your personal touch to the EU and we really appreciate that the last four years have not been easy
we want to reassure you we're friends and allies and we're very much looking forward to working together

Pool Report #4 EU-US summit

Note: No mention of Boeing-Airbus during spray.

Around 1:12 we went into the central meeting room for the EU -US Summit. POTUS was greeted by the same two top European officials that he saw downstair. POTUS flanked by NSA Jake Sullivan, Trade Rep Katherine Tai and SecState Tony Blinken on right, and Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary, and Mark Libby, charge d’affairs in US mission to EU on left.

Biden did a familiar talk about American revival. A very rough otter transcript of POTUS below - check with transcript since parts are clearly off. Apologies for time stamps:

Now you've bought

Unknown 1:20
positions.

Unknown 1:22
And with the seven, and I apologize.

Unknown 1:31
Closing

Unknown 1:39
Brussels, eu 2017, and

Unknown 1:46
also the first summit.

Unknown 1:51
When I brought the

Unknown 1:59
Americans back in, which is why we're here in full force.

Unknown 2:05
Happy to have with me today, members of my Cabinet briefing who suffers from this problem having worked with me for years.

Unknown 2:16
And also for Representative, Ambassador, chi, who has made some real progress.

Unknown 2:26
Sacred commerce, theater, I'm Linda Firstrade come here and one of the bravest people that we've worked with,

Unknown 2:37
is our sacred courage.

Unknown 2:40
And now, one of the things that we, you and I return will come as no shock to you. Europe is, is our natural partner.

Unknown 2:53
And the reason is we're committed to the same democratic borders, and are they are increasingly under attack.

Unknown 3:03
And I've said before and I apologize.

Unknown 3:13
I apologize.

Unknown 3:20
We

Unknown 3:23
know there's a lot that, that is, is happening I used to always, my friends would kid me in the United States and they're always told the Irish poets

Unknown 3:47
contest poets.

Unknown 3:59
Paul's changed, changed terrible beauty has been born.

Unknown 4:04
I think all has changed in the last 1012 years. And it's not because of any one person I think we're in the midst of the terrible beauty happened in the morning great shift in technology and a shift in production in the world. It's called a great anxiety into our country's uncertainty of the world and many of our colleagues and what's going to be replaced by new technologies

Unknown 4:42
that come along at the same time that it also generates uncertainty generated politically like that, by the individual, and also hearing some folks who were less than.

Unknown 4:54
How can I say it sounded more like charlatans, trying to take advantage and confirm, when we see an error, we see in the States and around the world. Only populism. So it seems to me that the best answer to deal with this these changes is that to have a circumstance where our economies grow, and they grow together, and they grow still based on the value set to design this in the first place.

Unknown 5:31
And I think we do share just the same basic values of human dignity human rights and my colleagues and family very close to my dad, a transition where in the city we lived in coal was dying, is no longer relevant, you know, he was not my grandfather was a coal miner mining in northeastern Pennsylvania cold died, my dad was a salesperson, and the economy collapsed, and we moved to another part of the job into in Delaware, just across the border, and my family.

Unknown 6:20
I would hear him off off expression.

Unknown 6:24
He says no jobs about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity. It's about respect and to place the

Unknown 6:35
child and say how are you going to Dr.

Unknown 6:38
Lena, I think we sometimes forget that.

Unknown 6:43
It's about being more current and never been able to hold your hand.

Unknown 6:48
And so I think we have an enormous opportunity. If we think in terms of his changes, particularly in terms of global warming. We get them in terms of jobs, the kind of jobs that we're going to have to create preserving the environment or jobs that can pay well, that are going to be working class, blue collar workers to be seen as thirds of the game was made.

Unknown 7:19
And, but we have to always accommodate those changes and provide.

Unknown 7:25
And so I think we have a lot to deal with from COVID-19 to

Unknown 7:35
whether or not we're in a position that we can generate the kind of strengthening of transatlantic trade technological cooperation. They're certainly a different set of priorities, with the same object. How do like minded countries sharing the same values, work together to improve living standards

Unknown 8:02
for the rest of the world. And we can capacity to do that. Take an awful lot of hard work and determination to change. One of the reasons I'm optimistic is because of our younger generation in Europe as well as the United States immigration, and this one is the best educated in American history.

Unknown 8:28
It's also the least credited most open, and the most the most committed. And I think that we have reason to believe that we provide the policies that are consistent and provide

Unknown 8:45
education plays a gigantic part. I think we have to pick up very very brave. I think we need to do some really very good.

And with that I should ask my mother was asked to hush up this discretion.

Pool Report #5

POTUS motorcade left Europa building and EU-US summit at around 2:30 and has arrived at Brussels airport at 2:46. Motorcade now approaching Air Force 1,

Pool Report #6 - AF 1 rolling

At 3:09 pm. Next stop: Geneva, for the main event.