National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan Asked What Biden is ‘Eating’ As He Prepares for Europe Speech
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was asked to provide some “color” on President Joe Biden’s preparations for a speech that will conclude his Europe trip — including what he’s eating.
The president is set to deliver a speech Saturday at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland to cap off a European trip designed to shore up the allied response to Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine.
As he briefed reporters en route to Warsaw, Sullivan was asked to provide background on that the president is eating and what else he is doing to prepare for that speech:
Q Jake, can you share any behind-the-scenes color, details of what the President is doing, how he is preparing for the address you mentioned on Saturday, even what he’s eating? Just anything a little inter- — like a little —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: (Inaudible.)
Q Yeah. But, I mean, interesting color. This has all been fascinating, but specifically in a color way.
MR. SULLIVAN: I’m so bad at that because I, like, only — they — I get out of my hermetically sealed container to execute on the policy issues and then get back in, and I’m not sure what people eat or drink.
Q But, like, has he been writing out the speech long?
MR. SULLIVAN: No, so — so, let’s see. I mean, look, first, I would just say President Biden — and you can see this; you could see it in the press conference yesterday — he just believes passionately in NATO, in the transatlantic relationship.
At the end of his remarks yesterday to the European Union, after some back-and-forth, he gave just a — there’s no other word for it than impassioned statement about the depth of his personal conviction for the transatlantic alliance and the transatlantic community, and the — both its past, its present, and its future.
And so I would say he sleeps way less on these kinds of trips than maybe other trips because he’s just going, going, going — like, wants to talk to the next leader; you know, take the next briefing.
And also, we’ve been covering this incredibly broad range of stuff. Right? So he was monitoring the negotiations on closing out Privacy Shield at the same time that he was working through the details of how many billion cubic meters we’re committing this year, at the same time as we’re talking about coastal defense capabilities to Ukraine, at the same time that we’re dealing with food security and wheat prices.
So, on this trip, it’s been a kind of remarkable mix of having a bunch of subject-matter experts further up in the cabin here doing, like, speed dating with the President on, you know, every topic under the sun.
And I don’t mean to, like, denigrate the substance of it by calling it “speed dating,” but you get the — you get the image — like, working through all these different things. And he — think he’s probably taken every meal he’s eaten so far here over a briefing. Right? Like, he’s not sitting alone eating; he’s eating while someone is going through some element of this trip with him.
So that’s the best I can do for color today. (Laughter.) But I will try to improve upon it in the future. How about that? Okay.
Watch above via The White House.
