President Joe Biden plans to attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in the coming weeks.
“Yes, I don’t know what the details are yet, but I’ll be going,” he told reporters Friday following the conclusion of a speech in Ohio.
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The president previously stopped by the British Embassy in Washington Thursday evening to pay his respects and said earlier that day that the queen “defined an era.”
“In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her. An enduring admiration for Queen Elizabeth II united people across the Commonwealth,” the president wrote. “The seven decades of her history-making reign bore witness to an age of unprecedented human advancement and the forward march of human dignity.”
“Queen Elizabeth II was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock Alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States,” he said. “She helped make our relationship special.”
Biden told reporters Thursday night that he would “probably” attend the funeral, though White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday that the administration was not yet ready to announce the full delegation.
“There’s a process. There’s a protocol here, official protocol through which leaders are invited. So we are not going to get ahead of that protocol. And when we have an update, we’ll certainly share that,” Jean-Pierre said during a press gaggle aboard Air Force One. “We just want to be mindful of the protocol. I’ll let the president’s statement stand for itself.”
The queen died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland Thursday at the age of 96, marking her the U.K.’s longest-serving monarch. Her coffin will soon depart for the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the monarchy’s official residence in Scotland, before lying in rest at St. Giles Cathedral for 24 hours, according to the BBC.
The queen will additionally lie in state at Westminster for four days, allowing the public to pay their respects, ahead of her funeral at Westminster Abbey in less than two weeks, though the exact date and time of her funeral have yet to be set.
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Queen Elizabeth will become the first monarch to have a funeral service in the abbey since King George II in 1760.
This is a developing story and will be updated with more information as it becomes available.
