Foreign leaders would like to keep their distance from the U.S. right about now.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Wednesday to discuss the building of a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, which the U.S. opposes. But despite the testy task at hand, Pompeo tried to be diplomatic and extended his hand to the other foreign ministers at the meeting, The Washington Post's John Hudson observed. Greenland Foreign Minister Steen Lynge, returned his gesture, albeit with a coronavirus-friendly elbow bump.
In Denmark (which does not have a corona outbreak) Pompeo went to shake hands w/ the Danish Foreign Minister, who didn't offer his hand back. Pompeo extended his hand to the Faroese FM who also would not shake hands. Pompeo then elbow bumped with the Greenlandic FM. pic.twitter.com/LC963np0dV — John Hudson (@John_Hudson) July 22, 2020
Images of the exchange between Pompeo and Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod provide a bit of a "down low, too slow" vibe.
The exchange provides just another example of how the rest of the world is viewing the U.S. and its coronavirus outbreak right now. Denmark has only seen 13,500 cases of coronavirus and 611 deaths as of Wednesday, compared to the U.S.'s nearly 4 million cases and 145,000 deaths. Kathryn Krawczyk
Jsouth14 on July 22nd, 2020 at 19:14 UTC »
Yesterday I bought something from a guy and I said “thanks for the help man” and instinctively stuck my hand out to shake hands and he shook without thinking and we made eye contact, still holding hands, and I could tell we both were like “wait a minute...”
roararoarus on July 22nd, 2020 at 16:49 UTC »
The second photo of the Danish Minister holding back Pompeo with his outstretched arm is gold. Seems like he has a WTF-are-you-doing look as well.
bladegmn on July 22nd, 2020 at 16:49 UTC »
What world is he living in that he doesn’t understand the basic social norms of the last 6 months? What an idiot.