50.7 Disapprove
42.9 Approve
President Joe Biden was seen on camera appearing to fall asleep during a United Nations climate change summit, prompting both criticism and sympathy.
A video posted on Twitter by Zach Purser Brown, a reporter with The Washington Post, showed the president closing his eyes for about 20 seconds during the opening speeches of the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland, on Monday. An aide is seen approaching the president, who then opens his eyes and claps as the speech ends.
The video soon went viral, and has been viewed more than 4.6 million times as of early Tuesday. Some criticized the president for the optics of the moment, but others expressed sympathy for the president's jet-lagged state. He arrived in Glasgow after meeting with Group of 20 leaders in Rome.
"America is in crisis, and Joe Biden is asleep at the wheel," House Republicans said in a tweet.
"Jeez… not the best look when you're trying to tell the word to wake up," Piers Morgan tweeted.
Rep. Ronny Jackson, who previously served as White House physician under former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, tweeted: "NOBODY in their right mind believes this man is actually running our country. It's so painfully obvious he's not physically or mentally up for the job, that it's EMBARRASSING. He needs to resign. America deserves better than this."
However, others defended Biden, with some suggesting they too would struggle to stay awake during a climate summit. "To be fair, I'd fall asleep during a climate conference too," Natalie Johnson wrote on Twitter.
Daniel Garza tweeted: "I'm giving him a pass on this one: traveling abroad, speaker is monotone, talking points being repeated…."
Ari Fleischer, who served as White House press secretary during George W. Bush's presidency, wrote that it was "hard to blame him."
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump took the opportunity to mock Biden, alleging that the president "fell asleep" because he could not bear to hear more about global warming.
"Even Biden couldn't stand hearing so much about the Global Warming Hoax, the 7th biggest Hoax in America," Trump said in a statement.
"Biden went to Europe saying Global Warming is his highest priority, and then promptly fell asleep, for all the world to see, at the Conference itself," he added. "Nobody that has true enthusiasm and belief in a subject will ever fall asleep!"
During a speech at the summit, Biden had apologized for Trump's decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement. "I shouldn't apologize, but I do apologize for the fact the United States, the last administration, pulled out of the Paris Accords and put us sort of behind the eight ball a little bit," he said.
The White House has been contacted for comment.
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-asleep-climate-summit-sparks-criticism-sympathy-1644822
this is correct
I agree anon.
90% of people do not feel 'sympathetic' towards Bidan for falling asleep, and will have your exact reaction to MSM reporting.
Showing them?
>>14905067 vaccine mandates are all a bluff - don't fold
>>14904675, >>14904683 remember THIS DAY
>>14905066 Nov 2. 4 year Delta
>>14905099 but the progressives certainly will give him hell for it.
I think the idea is to make as many people as possible hate Bidan… We aren't the target audience, we already know he is shit.
NOTES @08:50
>>14904803 Early Notes for Eventual Baker @250
>>14905006, >>14905112 Votes DO matter.
>>14905067 vaccine mandates are all a bluff - don't fold
>>14904675, >>14904683 remember THIS DAY
>>14905066, >>14904886 Nov 2nd | 4 year Delta
>>14905132, >>14905138, >>14905159 Celebrity mind-control
Baker Claims Empty Kitchen
>>14904484 Next baker self-confirm
>>14904481 Dough
>>14904803 BAKER CLAIMING THE 1000's of line Script
Everett Stern, a Republican candidate running to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate, revealed Sunday that aides to former national security adviser Michael Flynn allegedly asked him to "gather intelligence" on various lawmakers and judges for extortion purposes.
Speaking to a group of reporters, Stern said representatives for Flynn approached him through his Patriot Caucus group earlier this year with the objective to influence lawmakers to support election audits in favor of former President Donald Trump.
"They wanted to gather intelligence on senators, judges, congressmen, state reps, to move them towards the audit. The word 'move' was emphasized tremendously," Stern said. "What they wanted was to extort and to literally move people towards the audit with dirt."
Stern, who owns the private intelligence agency Tactical Rabbit, alleged that Flynn and others sought to use his company in April to gather information and recruit intelligence officers "both domestic and foreign." Stern said he believes he was approached by the group because his firm had access to a wide range of lawmakers.
Stern said the Patriot Caucus was running operations out of multiple states, including Oklahoma, Nebraska and Virginia, using the financial support of Texas billionaire Al Hartman. In Pennsylvania, Stern said he was given two main targets to focus on: Republican Senator Pat Toomey and Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick.
In conversations about those lawmakers, Stern was told to gather intelligence and to "accomplish the mission even if you have to use domestic terrorism."
"The severity and the danger of domestic terrorism in this group became very very apparent to me. It was extremely disturbing," Stern said.
He said he immediately alerted the federal government and the Pennsylvania GOP about the group's operations and did not comply with their requests.
"I believe that General Flynn has committed treason against the United States," Stern said on Sunday. "Based on what I have seen and witnessed, I truly believe that's the case."
A GOP Senate candidate in Pennsylvania said he was approached by Michael Flynn to gather "intelligence" on lawmakers. Here, Flynn sits before U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hold a joint press conference at the White House on February 10, 2017 in Washington, DC. Mario Tama/Getty Images
Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former national security adviser to Trump, has been a leading voice in supporting conspiracy theories regarding the 2020 presidential election. The organization America's Future, of which Flynn is its chairman, was one of the groups that reportedly financed an election audit in Arizona.
Stern is looking to take over Toomey's seat in the Senate. He previously made headlines as a whistleblower at HSBC bank, where he helped expose international fraud and money laundering within the company.