President Joe Biden on Thursday afternoon issued a lengthy statement honoring Queen Elizabeth II, after her death was announced by the royal family.
He had previously canceled a speech scheduled to speak about COVID-19 booster shots as soon as the news broke about her passing, which at the same time the White House press secretary was briefing reporters.
Biden last met with Queen Elizabeth last June as president, though he noted he had first met her as a senator in 1982. The Queen has met with 13 U.S. presidents during her reign.
“Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was more than a monarch. She defined an era,” Biden’s statement began.
“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,” he said.
Biden noted her seven-decade legacy as Queen, bearing witness “to an age of unprecedented human advancement and the forward march of human dignity.”
She was the longest-reigning British monarch, ascending the throne at just 27 years old and ruling the United Kingdom for more than 70 years before she died at 96 on Thursday.
Biden’s statement continued: “She was the first British monarch to whom people all around the world could feel a personal and immediate connection—whether they heard her on the radio as a young princess speaking to the children of the United Kingdom, or gathered around their televisions for her coronation, or watched her final Christmas speech or her Platinum Jubilee on their phones.”
President Biden said she had an “unwavering commitment to duty,” supporting charitable causes, showing friendship to nations old and new, uplifting people and elevating “the cause of liberty.”
The president also credited her with fostering the U.S. and the U.K.’s so-called “special relationship,” as the two allies have shared a unique bond for decades.
“Queen Elizabeth II was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock Alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States,” Biden said. “She helped make our relationship special.”
And she also solidified that relationship on the days that mattered most, Biden said: “She stood in solidarity with the United States during our darkest days after 9/11, when she poignantly reminded us that ‘Grief is the price we pay for love.’”
Biden said he and the U.S. government look forward to continuing close ties with the United Kingdom and the new King Charles III.
“Today, the thoughts and prayers of people all across the United States are with the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in their grief,” he said.
“We send our deepest condolences to the Royal Family, who are not only mourning their Queen, but their dear mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Her legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world.”
Biden later issued a proclamation ordering all American flags to be flown at half-staff at the White House, at all U.S. embassies and consular offices, at all public buildings and grounds, all military posts and naval stations and on all naval vessels across the country and around the world until sunset on the day of her interment.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., issued a similar order ordering all flags at the U.S. Capitol to be flown at half-staff in the Queen's honor.