President Joe Biden appeared to fall asleep Monday at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Scotland, potentially endangering the lives of billions of human beings.
The 78-year-old Democrat was spotted dozing off as a conference speaker urged attendees at "one of the most important meetings in history" to "stop the destruction of this magnificent planet." Biden closed his eyes and did not move until an aide walked up to him to chat, perhaps just to remind the increasingly unpopular president that he was being filmed.
Following his nap, Biden took the stage and described climate change as an "existential threat to human existence as we know it" that was "already ravaging the world." Each world leader was allowed three minutes to speak, but Biden's remarks lasted more than 11 minutes. At one point, he apologized to the world for former president Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement.
The president arrived in Scotland on Monday and was escorted by a convoy of 20 gas-guzzling SUVs. It was a relatively modest entourage compared with the 85-car convoy that had accompanied Biden in Rome days earlier and been widely criticized for causing excessive harm to the planet.
Biden's inability to stay awake during a conference on what most wealthy white Democrats would describe as the most pressing issue of our time is merely the latest setback for a president whose job approval rating has fallen roughly 10 percentage points since July. A series of polls released Monday brought more bad news for Biden, who will celebrate his 79th birthday later this month.
More than 70 percent of respondents in an NBC News poll said the country is on the wrong track under Biden, with 54 percent saying they disapprove of the job he is doing as president. Even more alarming for Biden were the results of a recent Marist College poll in which 44 percent of Democratic respondents said that "their party will have a better chance winning the White House" with someone other than Biden as nominee in 2024. Just 36 percent said Biden should run for reelection, while 20 percent were unsure.