Obama will pick up Pope Francis at the airport

Pope Francis and Obama
(Image credit: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)

It's not President Obama's M.O. to pick people up at the airport, but for the pope he'll make an exception.

When Pope Francis touches down at a military base outside of Washington, D.C., on Tuesday afternoon, the president will greet him personally. It's a welcome he "has extended to virtually no other foreign visitor," The New York Times reports.

But while Obama and the pope already have a rapport, there's a bipartisan squeamishness about what Francis might say while he's in town.

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"I'm sure the pope will make everyone very uncomfortable," one Catholic Democratic representative, Joseph Crowley, told the Times. "There will be some things that Democrats may not like to hear, and there will certainly be some things, I think, the Republicans will not like to hear."

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.