Top Biden Official Admits to Eating 'Magic Mushrooms' While on Trip to China
A senior Biden administration official is coming clean about a culinary adventure she had in China.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said during a Tuesday CNN interview that she had eaten mushrooms with “hallucinogenic properties.”
The adventurous menu choice was made during Yellen’s state visit to China in July.
“You set off a frenzy because you ordered a mushroom dish that contains, apparently, what are considered ‘magic mushrooms,'” CNN host Erin Burnett prompted Yellen on Tuesday. “What was it like, the mushroom experience?”
“The person who arranged our dinner did the ordering,” Yellen explained of her visit to a restaurant in Beijing.
“There was a delicious mushroom dish. I was not aware that these mushrooms had hallucinogenic properties. I learned that later,” the Cabinet official said.
Biden Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen explains eating “magic mushrooms” in China:
“I was not aware that these mushrooms had hallucinogenic properties” pic.twitter.com/N2d5hEdhEj
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 15, 2023
Yellen’s visit to the restaurant spurred interest in the “highly sought-after” mushrooms, according to CNN.
Yi Zuo Yi Wang — Chinese for “In and Out” (no connection to the burger chain) — specializes in cuisine from the southwestern province of Yunnan.
Yellen’s trip to China included matters of far more consequence than a menu choice at a restaurant.
It included conversations with Premier Li Qiang, China’s second most powerful government official, according to The Associated Press.
The Treasury secretary’s visit countered perceptions that the U.S. intends to “decouple” its economy from its fiercest geopolitical rival, the AP reported.
Yellen has contended that the world’s two leading powers “can and need to find a way to live together.”
However, she also defended some American trade restrictions during the trip due to “national security or human rights concerns,” according to an anonymous source.
Yellen’s visit to China followed that of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who met with President Xi Jinping in June.
It also came after the flight of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the continental U.S. further strained Sino-American relations in February.
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