President Biden on Friday cruised through Rome with an 85-vehicle motorcade — drawing criticism for the poor optics ahead of a global warming summit in Glasgow, Scotland, to which Biden is bringing about a dozen top US officials.
“Biden arriving at the Vatican. His motorcade is lonnnnnng,” tweeted Washington Post reporter Chico Harlan, along with a video of the procession.
“#Decarbonize this,” one person captioned the video.
“America’s Marie Antoinette class is Washington’s elites – and that shows it,” another person responded.
Biden routinely says there’s a “climate crisis” caused by fossil fuels. It’s unclear how many of the motorcade vehicles are electric plug-ins or hybrids, but they appeared to be standard gas-guzzling limos, SUVs and vans.
A different Washington Post reporter, Seung Min King, wrote in a White House pool report that “we are told it is 85 vehicles” in the motorcade.
The president’s domestic motorcade usually features only a couple dozen vehicles, not including those used to block off traffic.
Video of the unusually long motorcade in Rome shows the presidential Beast limo and a decoy followed by a stream of other cars — some with flashing police lights.
It’s possible that the White House was not responsible for the massive protective detail. Offering security generally is the responsibility of the host country and US law enforcement provides protective motorcades for foreign leaders in DC.
Biden departed for the trip Thursday after unveiling a $1.75 trillion framework for social and environmental spending that includes $555 billion in green-energy and anti-pollution spending that he wants Democrats to pass.
Biden said the legislation would “turn the climate crisis into an opportunity.”
“Folks, we all have that obligation — that obligation to our children and to our grandchildren,” Biden said of curtailing the use of fossil fuels.
After reaching the Vatican in the massive motorcade, Biden said he and Pope Francis discussed climate change.
Biden said he and the pope discussed the “moral responsibility to have to deal with this.”
