Biden's gestures during Fernández's speech in Los Angeles 2:11
(CNN) --
In a bizarre scheduling twist, US President Joe Biden was meeting here Thursday with a leader who has amplified conspiracy theories at the same time startling new details about the conspiracy emerged. to deny him the presidency.
For months, Biden had been reluctant to engage Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, whom US officials fear is repeating former President Donald Trump's lies about electoral fraud to undermine Brazil's system ahead of his own run for president. re-election this fall.
But to lure him to Los Angeles for a boycott-riddled summit of regional leaders, Biden agreed to a one-on-one meeting.
And so, on Thursday afternoon, Biden found himself in a conference room next to a man who, two days earlier, had called his 2020 victory "suspect." Meanwhile, in Washington, the House committee investigating attempts to nullify that election was putting the finishing touches on his successful public hearing.
"I'm looking forward to hearing what's on your mind and talking about what you want to talk about," Biden told Bolsonaro somewhat obliquely before their meeting.
"I would like to listen and raise some issues that I think are of mutual interest to us."
advertising
A parallel reality during the Summit of the Americas 1:46
Biden's meeting with Bolsonaro demonstrated the lengths he was willing to go to offer a unified picture of the Western Hemisphere at a conference where disunity was often on display.
And its coincidence with the House hearing on the events of January 6, 2021, where the autocratic tendencies of the former US president were exposed in sometimes shocking ways, highlighted the difficulty of using the US example. US to promote democracy in an increasingly fractured region.
Biden was able to secure some big compromises this week, including a last-minute deal on migration.
But questions about aid and the region's disparate priorities were still on display.
And Biden's political struggles were never far from the surface.
ANALYSIS |
The White House wanted to tackle migration again, but key players were nowhere to be found at the Summit of the Americas
Here are three takeaways from this week's Summit of the Americas.
trump persists
Trump figured at this week's summit in Southern California as the June blues, from his Brazilian protégé to the hearing where he laid out his disinformation agenda to lingering questions about American engagement in a region he largely ignored. .
Biden actively and explicitly worked to convince his counterparts that he was taking his own different approach.
Argentine President Alberto Fernández (left) shakes hands with US President Joe Biden after speaking during a plenary session of the IX Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2022. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
“I think there is a means by which we can perhaps undo some of the damage that was done in the previous four years, when it wasn't taken very seriously: relationships,” he said as he met with Caribbean leaders.
Alberto Fernández asked Biden to “help repair the damage caused by Trump” in Cuba and Venezuela
A little later, he said during the summit's opening plenary session that he wanted to discuss "proposals that I think are a long way from what we saw from our previous US administration."
This week's summit represented the kind of presidential work that Trump found unhelpful during his time in office.
He skipped the Summit of the Americas when he was in office and complained to his aides for attending the G7 and G20 meetings, questioning his point.
Even President Barack Obama sometimes dreaded the kind of massive summit where he was left sitting for hours listening to endless speeches by other world leaders.
He was often seen chewing nicotine gum as he sat down.
There was little doubt that Biden would reverse that trend.
He said this week that he had often reminded Obama that "all politics is personal," and that really getting anything done required showing up in person.
"It makes a difference when you get to know someone," he said at the start of a dinner he hosted in the Mediterranean gardens of the Getty Villa near Malibu.
"Whether you agree or not, it makes a difference to look them in the eye and understand a little more what is in their heart."
In fact, Biden was so engrossed in meeting with his fellow leaders that he missed Thursday night's January 6 hearing in its entirety, even though he told Canada's prime minister later that day that the event would "occupy my country".
"I didn't have time," Biden said with a shrug when asked by CNN if he had caught any of the coverage.
Interview with Alberto Fernández at the Summit of the Americas: Maduro was elected by Venezuelans
unit issues
Biden came to Los Angeles hoping to use new economic and immigration announcements to demonstrate cohesion in a region of fractured politics and at times entrenched skepticism toward the United States.
And by the time the summit ended, 20 leaders had signed an agreement offering a roadmap for managing the region's large migration flows, perhaps the most significant achievement of a meeting whose relevance many had previously questioned.
However, the decision by several leaders to boycott the summit, including top officials from Mexico and three Central American countries that the US has worked hard to cultivate, remained a visible sticking point.
They refused to attend because Biden refused to extend invitations to the autocratic leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Should Biden invite Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the Summit of the Americas?
Two former ambassadors answer
Heading into the summit, White House officials were frustrated that the drama over the participants seemed to be obscuring the important issues at stake.
However, when it came time for the leaders to meet inside the Los Angeles Convention Center, the discord was evident.
And on Friday night, first lady Jill Biden complained that her husband's news coverage had been "very unfair."
“All the leaders have come up to Joe and told him what a difference he has made and how we can work together,” he told Democratic donors in a backyard in Brentwood.
As Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris watched from just feet away, Belize's prime minister called it "inexcusable" that every country in the Americas had not been invited.
He said the summit's power was "diminished" by his absence.
Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said during a later speech on the show that the rules of future summits should be changed to prevent nations from being shut out.
“We definitely would have wanted a different Summit of the Americas.
The silence of the absent is calling us,” she added.
Fernández: I'm sorry that not everyone is at the Summit of the Americas 2:54
The comments came as no surprise to US officials, who were aware of the disagreements in advance and anticipated that some leaders would air them publicly.
Before the summit, some Biden aides suggested there would be some political posturing among leaders who have national audiences that are often skeptical of the United States.
And as they left the stage, Fernández and Biden shared a friendly handshake, a sign that behind the scenes things were not as tense as they seemed.
“Despite the disagreements, remember what we heard today,” Biden said after listening to speeches from his counterparts.
"We heard almost total agreement on the substantive things we should be doing."
tense politics
In the land of $7-a-gallon gasoline, Biden was never far from his greatest political responsibility.
And while foreign policy can sometimes act as an escape route for politically endangered presidents, boycotts and public shaming of his global counterparts are not helping a weakened American leader.
United States President Joe Biden delivers a keynote address at the Summit of the Americas opening ceremony at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on June 8, 2022. (Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Many of the issues Biden hoped to address at his summit are also major political issues, including large flows of migrants at the southern border and inflation made worse by unreliable supply chains.
Blinken says the immigration challenges facing the US at the southern border are "beyond anything anyone has seen before"
During a break from his duties hosting the summit, Biden made a detour to the Port of Los Angeles to address what his team sees as the most pressing current issue: soaring prices for everything from gasoline to groceries.
He blamed rising costs on Russia, oil companies, shipping conglomerates and Republicans, insisting he is doing everything he can to rein in inflation as new figures showed prices accelerated last month. .
To coincide with his trip west, Biden aides scheduled an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel's late-night talk show, often seen as an opportunity to show the lighter side of a politician.
Biden's appearance, however, was a mostly serious interview about gun control and abortion rights, two other intractable issues on which the president has little choice but to act alone, even as his most ardent supporters demand that he do so.
Jimmy Kimmel presses Biden on gun control 1:41
"I don't want to emulate Trump's abuse of the Constitution, constitutional authority," Biden told Kimmel on Wednesday after the late-night host asked him why he couldn't issue an executive order like Trump, who "handed them out like candy."
Asked by Kimmel how Monopoly is played when one side "doesn't pass" or follows the rules, Biden said, "You have to send them to jail."
The Summit of the Americas