LIMA — Outgoing President Biden played comedian on Friday, telling Peruvian President Dina Bolarte that he may have to go into space to rescue astronauts stranded on the International Space Station.
The 81-year-old leader met with Bolarte on the sidelines of the APEC Economic Conference of Pacific Rim nations and spotted NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in the audience to make his remarks.
“Every time my wife thinks I'm out of control, she says, 'I'll call you.' [Nelson] And let us send you into space,” Biden said.
“And I'm a little worried that he wants to send me into space because we have to bring some people back home!”
Mr. Bolarte, who took office in 2022 after his predecessor was arrested on treason charges in an attempt to avoid impeachment, said politely and laughed at Mr. Biden's joke.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were stranded on the space station in June after a problem was discovered aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, then returned to Earth without them.
Wilmore and Williams were only scheduled to stay in space for eight days, but they are now expected to stay until February.
Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its Crew Dragon capsule in SeptemberI'll eventually end up taking the pair home when I return from my scheduled trip in February.
Biden's brief public remarks included other references to space, including thanking Peru for signing the U.S.-led Artemis Accord on Extraterrestrial Standards and for entering into a research rocket agreement with the United States.
While the APEC summit was a relatively low-profile affair by the outgoing U.S. leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a more luxurious I was welcomed.
The lame-duck president's press availability has been limited during this trip, with no press conferences booked during his four-day stay in Peru or his subsequent trip to Brazil, and thousands of dollars spent on interviews with the president. This upset the journalists who had invested so much money.
In Brazil, Mr. Biden will visit the Amazon rainforest and participate in the Group of 20 meeting of the world's major economies in Rio de Janeiro.
As President-elect Donald Trump dominated the news cycle with announcements of Cabinet picks, Biden ignored questions from reporters and cracked jokes at all public events for the second day.
The president's only known interaction with a reporter since Trump's Nov. 5 election victory was a bizarre swipe at reporters in the Oval Office last week that may have led to a reporter being hit in the head with a camera. No, he said.
