Britain’s rumpled Prime Minister Boris Johnson has plenty of reasons to fear the media.
He was fatally slow to respond in the early weeks of the COVID-19 crisis. His former aide, Dominic Cummings, has already offered up a Shakespearean level of vitriol in his revelatory tome about the shortcomings of his boss. There is that fight with the French. Lots of criticism on Afghanistan. Gas bills. Brexit fallout. Cabinet reshuffling chaos.
And there is even the pressing matter as to just how many children have the right to call Johnson dad. Six, Johnson only recently confirmed, as jaws dropped all over Britain.
Plenty of reason, then to hide in the corner. But there was a relaxed Johnson at the White House, looking like he was having a great time in one of his favorite countries, calling on British reporters to ask questions and engaging in the time-honored democratic practice of riposte and retort with the assigned representatives of his bosses, otherwise known as the electorate.
President Joe Biden has problems, too, beginning with the total chaos at the border involving overwhelmed border guards, thousands of impoverished Haitian migrants and an immigration strategy so riven by internal disagreement within the administration that it cannot seem to make a single clear decision about anything.