A hot mic captured President Joe Biden informing French President Emmanuel Macron that Biden would have to be the first one to leave an 80th anniversary D-Day commemoration in Normandy, France, on Thursday.
The event took place at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, a site that overlooks what the Allies designated as Omaha Beach, where Americans took their worst casualties during the D-Day invasion.
The cemetery contains the graves of 9,388 Americans who were killed on D-Day and in the battle for Normandy that followed. There are also 1,557 names listed on the Walls of the Missing at the location.
Ahead of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, ABMC staff and volunteers placed an American flag and French flag in front of each headstone at the Normandy American Cemetery. Tomorrow we will honor those who served and made the ultimate sacrifice 80 years ago. #dday80 pic.twitter.com/fWMRaW9wrV
— ABMC (@usabmc) June 5, 2024
As Biden walked into the ceremony with Macron, he could be heard saying, “My advance team said I gotta leave, be the first one to leave, because I hold people up.”
Macron did not respond but simply continued heading toward the event.
BIDEN: “My advance team said I gotta be the first one to leave” pic.twitter.com/x5za5Z70wK
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 6, 2024
Later during the ceremony, Biden seemed to want to take a seat while standing alongside first lady Jill Biden, Macron and the French president’s wife, Brigitte Macron.
Awkward 😬 pic.twitter.com/3KNLco85hj
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 6, 2024
True to his word, when the commemoration was over, Biden left the stage quickly, while Macron hung behind to continue to greet American veterans, embracing some of them.
Biden and the first lady did shake the hands of some World War II veterans on the side of the stage from which they were exiting.
Jill, Ed.D., escorts Joe Biden out as French President Macron stays behind to greet veterans pic.twitter.com/n4rpRgdbv5
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 6, 2024
USA Today reported an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 were on hand for Thursday’s ceremony.
The Normandy invasion was the largest amphibious operation undertaken in the history of warfare.
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The battle — which occurred on a 50-mile stretch — came nearly five years after German dictator Adolf Hitler plunged the world into war when his Nazi forces invaded and occupied much of Europe.
The Allies amassed more than 156,000 troops, nearly 7,000 ships and 11,000-plus aircraft for the operation, according to the Department of Defense.
The D-Day plan involved crossing the English Channel and making landings on five Normandy beach sites, as well as dropping paratroopers from the 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions behind enemy lines.
Map of the #Normandy invasion with allied forces: https://t.co/DVbhkikKUE #OperationOverload @Memory_Project pic.twitter.com/x1MIB4YjjP
— CanadianEncyclopedia (@CdnEncyclopedia) November 11, 2015
In his Order of the Day for the operation, Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight Eisenhower said, “Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.”
“The eyes of the world are upon you.” | Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s D-Day Message, broadcast on British and American radio, June 6, 1944. pic.twitter.com/u6hMcJFOyG
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) June 6, 2024
He closed by saying, “Good luck! And let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”
