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In an address to Congress, King Charles said the UK and US partnership is "more important" than ever. He told US lawmakers that the "challenges we face are too great for any one nation to bear alone" and expressed the UK's "highest regard and friendship" with the US and recalls when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, addressed the same chamber in 1991. The King also closed his speech by saying "America's words carry weight and meaning", and it prompts some muttering from Congress. 0:01 | The King gives his closing remarks to Congress 0:56 | Iain Dale and Simon Marks give their analysis 6:27 | Philip T. Reeker, Former acting US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs and acting US ambassador to the UK, under the Biden administration. Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #simonmarks #trump #donaldtrump #kingcharles #iaindale #LBC #uspolitics #statevisit LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
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America's words carry weight and meaning, as they have since independence
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The actions of this great nation matter even more. President Lincoln understood this so well with his reflection in the magisterial Gettysburg Address
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that the world may little note what we say, but will never forget what we do
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and so to the United States of America, on your 250th birthday
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let our two countries rededicate ourselves to each other in the selfless service of our peoples
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and of all the peoples of the world. God bless the United States and God bless the United Kingdom
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Well that was a speech by King Charles III which lasted for a little under half an hour
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I counted eight standing ovations I don't know whether you were counting them as well Simon
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but a speech quite well received I thought slightly hesitatingly delivered at times
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but some very very interesting things that he said there particularly that conclusion
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the world may note what we say but I didn't get the last word about what we do
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America's words carry weight and meaning actions matter even more and then quoting Lincoln from the Gettysburg Address
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the world will little remember what we say but will remember what we do
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well if that isn't a direct I mean the whole Well, I thought it was an extraordinarily carefully crafted and well-delivered speech
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There were a couple of moments where the king seemed to be trying to find his way on his pages
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but we got past all of that. But I think the most important aspect of this speech was that this was a message
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that the UK, first of all, believes in facts. This was a fact-based speech and a reminder to America's political class
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and, of course, to the man possibly watching from the Oval Office
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and we'll talk in a second about the White House reaction to what's been going on
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a reminder to the President of the United States that you can't simply make stuff up all the time
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This was a reminder that facts matter, alliances matter, and there were various elements of this speech
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that were clearly designed to send a very, very clear message to the President of the United States
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about the values of Britain and the values of our society. He spoke right at the beginning about whatever disagreements we may have
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we are united in our determination to protect democracy Remember that he speaking in a building that was ransacked by President Trump supporters as they sought to overturn democracy on January the 6th 2021 The king and the queen
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now making their way, of course, out of the chamber and receiving warm applause. He went on to say
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that in the spirit of 1776, we can perhaps agree that we do not always agree. And citing
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the very birth of this nation, which was built around this expression, this phrase
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no taxation without representation. The American settlers were complaining that they were being taxed by the king
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but they were getting no representation democratically in the UK. The king there saying that this was a partnership between the US and the UK
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that was born out of dispute. he went on to insist that roots of the partnership run deep
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and the particularly affecting section of that speech I think is where he was talking about the Magna Carta
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saying that it's cited in at least 100 Supreme Court cases many of which cite the Magna Carta's foundational principle
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that executive power is subject to checks and balances. We are in a city where the executive, President Donald Trump
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is constantly riding roughshod over those checks and balances. There was a glancing reference obliquely to the Jeffrey Epstein scandals
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He said that in both countries there is a need to address some of the ills
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that so tragically exist in our own societies today. That's as close as we got, I think, to an oblique reference to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal
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That will not satisfy some members of Congress. But then a real determination to push back against the more muscular aspects of Donald Trump's foreign and international policy
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Working together with our international partners, we can stem the beating of plowshares into swords
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The alliance between the US and the UK is truly unique. He cited John F. Kennedy's soaring vision of an Atlantic partnership based on twin pillars
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He said that it was more important today than it has ever been
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So I think that this was a real effort by the king to send a vigorous message to President Trump that this alliance is vital to save, vital to salvage, and that the UK is determined to continue pursuing an entirely fact-based approach to the problems that exist in the world at a time when the government here is not
5:54
Well lots of texts coming in from you we'll come to calls as well
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over the next course of the next 20 or 30 minutes so do get your calls in
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getting your reaction to what the King has said to this joint session of Congress
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0345 6060 973 I'm delighted to be joined by the former acting US ambassador to the UK from 2021 to 2022 and former acting U Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip T Rieker
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Ambassador, thank you very much for joining us. Now, the king had a tightrope to walk in many ways. What's your reaction
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I think it was an absolutely marvellous speech. I had an opportunity during my time in London to get to know the king
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who was, of course, then Prince of Wales a little bit and was always impressed by his graciousness
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his true interest in the United States. And he knows our country very well, having been here 20
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times, but having studied it. And he brought out those messages, again, dealing with these tight
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rope issues that have been the focus of a lot of press discussion, certainly in the last couple of
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days, but also addressing, I think, the broader issues, reminding the American people, as much as
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his subjects, shall we say, in the United Kingdom or in other parts of the Commonwealth
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of what is important in the United States, our constitutional system, the checks and balances
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He was speaking to Congress. He was addressing the members of the Supreme Court who were
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invited, and they're listening to his remarks as well. You know, tripartite government
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that's important. Checks on the executive, he brought that up. But he also managed to put in
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And references, of course, to the environment, climate, to things that were important to him
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the historic context. And again, going back to those critical lines, whatever our differences and our disagreements
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we have a commitment to democracy and we salute the courage and the weight of history
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the speech, the White House tweeted out a picture of Donald Trump and King Charles together
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with the caption, two kings, and then with a crown emoji. What do you make of that? I
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think it's quite an astonishing thing to do. I would say, too, it's a little bit embarrassing
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You know, I think it's, again, a political dig trying to go after the so-called No Kings
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movement. You know, there is a king of the United Kingdom, of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
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and a sovereign of domains beyond, of course, whether that's Canada, our closest neighbor to
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the north, Australia and other nations. We don't have a king in the United States. And of course
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as the king himself referenced, you know, 250 years ago, that was a major focus of his
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remarks. The United States, these different colonies came together, took up arms, in fact
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and declared independence from that king, his five times great-grandfather. So I think, you know
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we need to stick to the non-political side of it. It shows you that the White House, of course
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represents both the head of state and the head of government, and government is inherently
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political This occasion is about state relations and frankly as the King made so clear about the future of our shared globe Do you not think though that the king was being perhaps a little bit more political than
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many of us thought he would be? Now, admittedly, the speech was written primarily by the government
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but there were some pretty direct messages. You don't have to interpret, over-interpret it to
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realise that there were some direct messages to Donald Trump. How do you think he's going to react
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to that when he gets up in the White House at the state banquet later this evening and makes his
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speech? My guess is that the president, who does respect the king, and that was clear in his remarks
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earlier and the welcome that he and the First Lady have given the king and queen, that he will
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choose to go with the flow and the positive tone of all of this about our two great nations. He's
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always said, you know, his mother was, of course, British coming from Scotland and
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had a great respect for the crown, and he learned that growing up. And I think that tone
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they will continue. They'll use other elements of this in, again, the political banter
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whether it's culture wars or other things. That's part of our country right now. I think it was very
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wise of the king to sort of talk about coming together, his references to the Gettysburg
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Address and rededicating ourselves to the propositions there. Also mentioning, you know
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that our words carry weight and meaning our actions and what we do will be what history truly
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remembers. And I think we have to keep that in mind. But underscoring, you know, the roots of
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our country in the British Enlightenment, the English common law, the Magna Carta, all of these
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things, I think, were extremely good. And, you know, there's room in there to interpret as you
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want. Had the king not addressed certain things, had the speech not made oblique references
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then I think we would be commenting on that fact. So overall, I think this was a marvelous moment to
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you know, rededicate ourselves and certainly remember the strength of this very enduring
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relationship, this partnership that grew out of, frankly, a revolution. there is a possibility though that the president might do a similar thing that he did after the
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his state visit to our country where it all went terribly well he was terribly pleased with it
11:49
and then within 24 hours was slagging our country off do you think there's a danger that that will
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happen here too i suspect it's it's very possible i remember commenting on that at the time uh and
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the very inappropriate sort of contemptuous remarks about Allied soldiers, including the British
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you know, that fly in the face of facts. We talked earlier in your program about facts
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This was a speech full of facts and the importance of facts and reminding people that facts exist and history exists
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It needs to be studied. It needs to be learned. And there's frankly no one better to tell us that than King Charles III, who is a living embodiment of so much history, but studied history himself at Cambridge
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