Joe Biden unexpectedly canceled a gala dinner at the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, Tuesday, after telling reporters that he had “a little cold.” World leaders have descended on the island resort of Bali to hold meetings on November 15 and 16.
“Breaking news would be that President Biden is missing the G20 leaders dinner,” Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy reported. “He is supposed to be at a supper right now, 8:10 in the evening here in Bali, Indonesia, with everybody that flew in. If you’re the U.S. president, you spent basically two days flying to get here for a dinner like this. You got MBS there, you got Trudeau there. Xi is also there, if anything was left on the table.”
Biden, and other world leaders met over the weekend with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting. Hun Sen also traveled to Bali for the G-20 meeting but returned home after testing positive for COVID.
“Yesterday we did hear President Biden tell us that he had a cold and he has tested negative for Covid, despite the Cambodian leader from our last stop being positive now, but we do not know exactly what is going on with the president,” he said. “They called an early lid. So we will keep you posted on what exactly is going on with Biden.”
The White House offered “little explanation” for the last minute change in the schedule, the Washington Times reported.
A White House official stressed that Mr. Biden does not have COVID-19, but offered little explanation for the sudden move. The official said the president had spent a full day in meetings and needed to attend to a few things, but did not elaborate beyond stressing that there was “nothing urgent” that commanded Mr. Biden’s attention.
The official added that Mr. Biden is expected to resume his normal schedule on Wednesday.
Biden, who has reportedly had several COVID booster shots at this point, tested positive for the virus two times over the summer. On July 21, the one year anniversary in which he said that vaccinated Americans could not get COVID-19, he tested positive for COVID-19. He tested positive for the coronavirus again on July 30, in a “rebound” case after after taking Pfizer’s oral antiviral Paxlovid.
The White House said Biden tested negative for COVID Tuesday morning, and is not considered a close contact as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Biden will return to the White House on Thursday night ahead of his daughter Naomi’s wedding on Saturday, the Daily Mail reported.