LIMA — Retiring President Biden played comedian Friday and told Peruvian President Dina Boluarte that he may have to go to space to save the astronauts stranded aboard the International Space Station.
The 81-year-old leader, meeting with Boluarte on the sidelines of the APEC economic conference of Pacific rim countries, made the crack after spotting NASA administrator Bill Nelson in the audience.
“Every time my wife thinks I’m getting out of hand, she says, ‘I’m going to call [Nelson] and have him send you to space,” Biden said.
“And I’m a little concerned he may want to send me to space because we got to get some folks back home!”
Boluarte, who assumed power in 2022 when her predecessor was detained for treason for attempting to avoid impeachment, chuckled politely at Biden’s joke.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were stranded aboard the space station in June when an issue was found with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which then returned to Earth without them.
Wilmore and Williams were supposed to stay in space for just eight days but are now expected to remain there until February.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its Crew Dragon capsule in September, which will eventually bring the pair home when it returns from a scheduled trip in February.
Biden’s brief public remarks included other references to space, including thanking Peru for signing the US-led Artemis Accords on extraterrestrial norms and for reaching a research rocket agreement with the US.
The APEC summit has featured a relatively low profile by the outgoing American leader — while Chinese President Xi Jinping received a more lavish welcome in conjunction with a state visit and the inauguration of a massive Chinese-funded port in the South American country.
The lame-duck president’s trip has featured limited press availability and he has not booked a news conference for either his four-day stay in Peru or his subsequent travel in Brazil, roiling reporters whose outlets sank thousands of dollars into covering the president.
In Brazil, Biden will visit the Amazon rainforest and participate in the G20 conference of the world’s leading economies in Rio de Janeiro.
Biden made the joke as he ignored press questions at all of his public events for a second day — as President-elect Donald Trump dominated the news cycle with his Cabinet nomination announcements.
The president’s only known interaction with a reporter since Trump’s Nov. 5 election victory was a bizarre swipe last week at a report in the Oval Office, whose head he said might be bashed by a camera.