Former First Lady Hillary Clinton and her husband former President Bill Clinton were among the guests at a state dinner hosted by President Joe Biden for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday.
The guest list included more than 200 politicians, officials and celebrities and continued a long tradition of honoring alliances between the U.S. and other nations.
Biden's Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and his wife Mary were there, along with Vice President Kamala Harris and members of Biden's cabinet including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, impeached Director of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, all with their spouses or significant others.
Governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Kathy Hochul of New York were there, along with North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, all Democrats.
CIA Director William J. Burns was there, and so was Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and several of his family members. A few other ambassadors were also present.
A number of Democrat House members and Senators were also present, most notably Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (R), the minority leader of the House. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R) seemed to be the token Republican politician at the dinner.
Celebrities in attendance included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Japanese-American figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, actor Robert DeNiro, and best-selling self-help author Jon Gray.
The dinner was spring-themed with flowers common to both nations including sweet peas, peonies and hydrangeas.
Satin and glass butterflies were also used as decorations on the tables.
The floor was covered to look like a koi pond, including cherry blossoms and lily pads for the guests to walk on.
The colors green, blue and pink represented the growth of friendship, stability and security and pink spring's essence, respectively.
The food included such traditional foods as shiso leaf fritters and salmon, along with dry-aged rib-eye steak with blistered shishito pepper butter, sesame oil sabayon, and matcha ganache over a salted caramel pistachio cake.
Cherry ice cream with raspberry drizzle was also served.
Other former presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and George W. Bush and their wives did not attend the dinner, so it is not clear whether Clinton's presence there was related to her continued interest in being part of the government at the highest levels--maybe as a stand-in for the current ailing, declining commander in chief?
