Tweety baffles in Cartagena! Obama rescues Chris Matthews [View all]

[flamingdem]

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/awkward-obama-excuses-chris-matthews-during-panel-with-latin-american-presidents/

With the Summit of the Americas underway, President Obama was among three presidents of the Americas today to participate in a panel on energy and the economy, among other things, along with Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos, and Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff. Moderating this panel is America’s own Chris Matthews, whose idiosyncrasies, if somewhat confusing to a portion of Americans, was completely baffling for the Latin American presidents. After a particularly contentious question at President Rousseff, President Obama had to step in and explain: “this is what happens,” he tells the audience, when American journalists are unleashed on Latin America.

Matthews asked President Obama how he felt about industrialization in Latin America, except in doing so, essentially managed to accuse Brazil of trying to pull a fast one on America and sink our economy. Brazil isn’t exactly Venezuela or Cuba, but most journalists in Latin America aren’t as forward as Matthews (well, most American journalists aren’t as forward as Matthews) and the style of the question is not one most Latin American journalists would ever use, particularly in the presence of three presidents. Perhaps because of this, President Obama felt he needed to cut the tension with a joke, and he did, lamenting, “this is what happens when commentators from the United States” leave the country, a joke essentially meaning, “this is what I have to deal with.” The joke cut the tension in the room, and left President Obama wide open for a favorable answer to Brazil.

Below the translation of the CNN translation of their comments VIDEO AT LINK