The 2020 Summer Olympics, also known as Tokyo 2020, is to be held from 23 July to 8 August 2021. The international sports competition was delayed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic but the name remains the same. It is being reported that Jill Biden will go to Japan for the opening ceremony on July 23 without her husband, the president. While in Japan, she is holding diplomatic meetings with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and other senior diplomatic officials.

When did Jill Biden begin to assume diplomatic meetings with a major ally on behalf of the United States and her husband’s administration? Why isn’t Joe Biden going? Other than totally botching his own message about pushing through massive infrastructure legislation in Congress, what’s he got going on that he can’t show up? Maybe his staff isn’t allowing him to go so as to avoid fresh opportunities for him to embarrass us overseas, given his performances at the G7 and NATO recently.

According to a report by The Yomiuri Shimbun, Joe Biden sending his wife is a sign of the importance of the relationship between the U.S. and Japan. That’s a nice spin but sending Jill to the first Olympics held since he took office is not a sign of respect. Jill Biden is the first lady, Joe’s number one handler. She isn’t an elected politician, she isn’t an official government employee, and she isn’t a real diplomat. Why is she going to meet with the Japanese prime minister and Japanese officials? She should be visiting a school with his wife or something traditional like that. Jill Biden’s aggressive ambitions are getting in the way.

Jill Biden filling in for Joe is even a smack to Kamala. After all, Joe is busy helping her establish herself as a foreign policy protege of his. That’s bad news for America as he has been historically wrong on foreign policy for the entirety of his very long career in Washington. Kamala was given the job of welcoming the Japanese prime minister to the White House in April, which was also odd. Why didn’t Biden do that himself? I watched Trump and Melania welcome foreign visitors at the door of the White House numerous times. Biden later met with the prime minister and did a press conference with him. Remember when Biden was running for president and he promised a return to normal? He said he had decades of experience and would bring back traditional norms in a presidential administration. What Joe Biden didn’t tell us was that Jill and Kamala would be running the show.

It’s bad enough Joe Biden openly admits his staff bosses him around. He says he gets in trouble if he doesn’t do as they tell him to do. Imagine that. Other international leaders must be laughing that this feeble old man isn’t up to doing his job. The photo of Jill Biden on Air Force One sitting at Biden’s desk and going through a briefing book on the way to the G7 as though she was preparing was bad enough. Now she’s the representative from the Biden administration at the Tokyo Olympics. The Yomiuri Shimbun notes that in past years, vice-presidents and first ladies have attended without the president but it wasn’t at the beginning of an administration.

U.S. President Joe Biden himself will not be attending the ceremony, but the dispatching of his wife in his place sends a message of the importance of the relationship with Japan.

Jill Biden made her diplomatic “debut” earlier this month when she accompanied her husband at the Group of Seven summit in England. The Bidens met with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife and other leaders.

The U.S. government sent then Vice President Mike Pence to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and then Secretary of State John Kerry to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. When it comes to the first lady, Michelle Obama, the wife of former President Barack Obama, attended the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012.

Jill Biden doesn’t like Kamala. This is Jill’s way of one-upping her. And, it is further indication that Biden is not up to the task of being the leader of the free world. Jill is being sent to fill in for him. Lately, she and Kamala’s husband have been traveling to various states to encourage people to take the COVID-19 vaccines. That is a good job for her. She gets to travel and speak to people to promote her husband’s initiatives. They will be coming to my city on Tuesday and will attend an Astros-Orioles game. The Astros are providing a vaccination event that evening before and during the baseball game. The two of them will appear on both the Astros television broadcast and radio broadcast.

Let’s hope while she is in Houston, Jill doesn’t try to speak in Spanish again.

Me to my high school Spanish cohorts when we're sitting down to the final without studying at all. pic.twitter.com/LENk5LRzBQ

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) April 1, 2021

Who is going to run for president in 2024 – Jill or Kamala?