White House officials responded to questions about whether President Biden had any plans to apologize for the U.S. using nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Tuesday.
Biden will travel to Hiroshima, Japan, on Wednesday to meet with other leaders from the G-7. To date, no U.S. president has apologized for the decision to use atomic bombs on Japan at the end of World War II.
"Many previous American presidents have been pressured or asked to apologize for the U.S. using a nuclear bomb of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Does the president plan to do that when in Japan, or make any comments at all on what transpired?" a reporter asked.
"The president plans to visit the memorial and to pay his respects to the lives of the innocents who were killed in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
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"But the focus of the trip, Ed, is what I just talked about in my opening statement. It's about the future. It's about getting the G-7 together to talk about some common challenges and opportunities and lay a framework down to address those challenges and opportunities together," he continued.
President Barack Obama visited Hiroshima in 2016, but did not apologize for the U.S. attacks, nor did he undercut President Harry Truman's decision to carry them out. He instead used the visit to call for a reduction in nuclear stockpiles across the globe.
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Kirby went on to say that Biden's trip across the Pacific may be cut short thanks to ongoing budget negotiations. Biden had been scheduled to visit both Australia and Papua New Guinea after the G-7 summit in Japan.
The White House is currently in a pitched battle with Republicans in Congress over raising the debt ceiling. Republicans in the House are pushing for Biden to make concessions and cut spending, while Biden argues the ceiling should be raised no questions asked.
The U.S. has never defaulted on its debt, and the two factions have barely two weeks to avert the crisis.
