Joe Biden says Queen ‘defined an era’ and orders flags at half mast until her funeral

President Joe Biden has ordered American flags at the White House and throughout the US to be lowered to half staff until Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.

Biden in a lengthy statement on Thursday after the Queen died aged 96 stated, ‘Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was more than a monarch. She defined an era’.

He also signed a proclamation for flags to be flown at half mast ‘upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations… throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, on the day of internment.’

The sites include US embassies, consular offices, legations and facilities overseas including military and naval stations.

Biden signed the order ‘as a mark of respect for the memory of Queen Elizabeth’ and to honor her decades of service, the proclamation states.

‘Queen Elizabeth II led always with grace, an unwavering commitment to duty, and the incomparable power of her example,’ it reads. ‘She was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock Alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States.’

In his statement on behalf of himself and First Lady Jill Biden, the president called the Queen ‘a steady presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons’ amid a ‘world of constant change’.

‘The seven decades of her history-making reign bore witness to an age of unprecedented human advancement and the forward march of human dignity,’ he stated.

President Biden acknowledged that the Queen ‘dedicated her whole life’ to serving people around the world.

‘She was the first British monarch to whom people all around the world could feel a personal and immediate connection,’ he said.

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