Pelosi, Biden, and Taiwan – Part 2

I wrote here about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.  Among other things I asked whether Secretary Pelosi planned her trip without talking to President Biden, or at least to his people, first? Well, apparently she did – or at least that is what one of the panelists in the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ “World Review with Ivo Daalder” said last Friday.¹  More specifically, they said that Speaker Pelosi (or her people) told President Biden (or his people) that she would not go to Taiwan if he asked her not to.  But here is the kicker: Speaker Pelosi also told the President that if she did not go to Taiwan at his request, she would have to publicly say why she wasn’t going. 

The panelists all sort of passed over this comment, but I think it is pretty big.  It seems to me that Speaker Pelosi was basically threatening the President: If you tell me not to go, you’re going to get all the blame and you are going to look weak to the American people.²

There was mention during the show that Speaker Pelosi is the head of a co-equal branch of our government and the President can’t tell her what to do.  That’s not true in foreign policy.  The President is in charge of our relations with foreign countries.  In contacts with foreign countries, his role is not equal with one of heads of the two houses of Congress.

In any case, this situation indicates a lack of respect of President Biden by a leading Democrat that I find fascinating. 
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¹ I am not sure which of the participants said this, but you can find it in the episode here.
² And the Chinese leadership.