White House pressed on San Francisco homelessness cleanup ahead of Xi visit

The White House was pressed Monday on San Francisco cleaning up homeless encampments ahead of a visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The cleanup comes after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) visited China last month. The effort includes a power-washing and scrubbing of the city’s streets and the removal of most of the city’s homeless camps.

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“Is the president embarrassed that an American city needs to go through a total makeover to be presentable for his out-of-town guests?” a reporter asked national security adviser Jake Sullivan during Monday’s White House press briefing.

Sullivan did not answer directly, instead pointing to the generally healthy U.S. economy at large.

“The president is incredibly proud of the record that the United States will bring as host to this summit,” he said. “The strongest economic record of any developed country, the lowest unemployment over a sustained period in half a century.”

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit will host an expected 20,000 CEOs and heads of state in San Francisco this week. San Francisco Mayor London Breed has argued that the conference will bring in almost $53 million, which could revitalize the city’s economy.

But the cleanup is leading to some awkward questions about priorities. The reporter pressed Sullivan a second time.

“Gov. Gavin Newsom said of the cleanup this, ‘I know folks are saying, ‘Oh, they’re just cleaning up this place because all of those fancy leaders are coming to town,’ That’s true,'” the reporter said. “Does President Biden agree it’s more important to impress the leader of China than the American people that live in San Francisco and pay taxes every day?”

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Sullivan was not amused.

“First, I completely reject the premise of your question,” he said. “But secondly, I don’t know the context of what Gov. Newsom said, so I won’t respond to it.”