President Joe Biden’s virtual summit kicked off this morning . . .
Today I’m bringing together leaders from around the world to meet this moment of climate peril, and extraordinary opportunity. No nation can solve this crisis on its own, and this summit is a step on a path to a secure, prosperous, and sustainable future. https://t.co/lcUUsgyEo3
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 22, 2021
. . .and it’s not going well:
I am all for the substance of today's climate summit — but at a technical level, there's not other word for it than "mess". There have so far been significant sound or interpretation problems with Xi, Putin, Macron, and Morrison speeches.
— Ryan Heath (@PoliticoRyan) April 22, 2021
The first major glitch was when French President Emmanuel Macron’s taped speech was cut off and Russian President Vladimir Putin took over:
Technical hitch sees Emmanuel Macron silenced to accommodate Vladimir Putin – follow livehttps://t.co/eR28h5mU3E
— The Independent (@Independent) April 22, 2021
It’s being called a “complete gong show”:
Major diplomatic gaffe: Biden’s Global Climate Summit just cut off France’s Macron — he will be so annoyed — in favour of Putin!
“That was a tape of Macron,” Blinken can be heard to say.
From a technical standpoint, this White House-hosted summit is a complete gong show. pic.twitter.com/jvOG24fJFT
— David Akin ?? (@davidakin) April 22, 2021
Watch for yourself:
A uniquely 2021 moment in Zoom diplomacy at the Climate Summit as a tape of President Macron inadvertently cut over midway to President Putin pic.twitter.com/wEt7WOwCij
— Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) April 22, 2021
Macron did eventually come back, but that didn’t make Putin very happy:
Macron is back at climate summit. Looks like Putin was live but Blinken played the tape of Macron — and Putin was antsy about getting to speak https://t.co/uTVbJ7NWUb
— Shaun Tandon (@shauntandon) April 22, 2021
And now all these leaders know what parents go through every day with awful Zoom school. We should make them hold all their meetings virtually:
Technical glitches plague Joe Biden's virtual climate summit as Emmanuel Macron appears twice and Vladimir Putin is not amused. Follow updates here. https://t.co/ni7gUBE5o4
— Financial Review (@FinancialReview) April 22, 2021
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