X CEO Linda Yaccarino bails on a Wall Street Journal conference after her trainwreck Code interview

• Linda Yaccarino has canceled a conference appearance after a trainwreck interview last month.
• The CEO of X, formerly Twitter, was mocked after seeming unprepared at Code Conference.

Linda Yaccarino has pulled off the schedule of an upcoming conference following her disastrous interview at Vox's Code Conference last month.

The CEO of X, formerly known as Twitter, will no longer be speaking at The Wall Street Journal's Tech Live conference next week.

"Linda Yaccarino is now unable to attend the WSJ Tech conference next week," an X executive told Insider. "With the global crisis unfolding, Linda and her team must remain fully focused on X platform safety. We wish everyone the very best for a successful WSJ Tech and look forward to future participation."

Yaccarino was widely criticized for her interview at Vox's Code Conference last month, when she struggled to answer questions about X's product lineup — like the platform's plans for a paywall — and user numbers.

She seemed defensive when answering questions from interviewer Julia Boorstin, who inquired about the company's structure and asked if Yaccarino was a "CEO in name only."

"Not nice," Yaccarino responded. "He runs technology. He leads a team of exceptionally talented engineers. I don't care what the structure is at Meta, but who wouldn't want Elon Musk sitting by their side running product?"

The answer drew laughter from the audience, Insider's Ben Bergman noted.

At one point, the CEO appeared caught off-guard by what she called the "unexpected" appearance of former Twitter head of trust and safety Yoel Roth, who was interviewed at the conference earlier in the day.

"You should be worried. I wish I had been more worried," Roth warned Yaccarino during his interview with tech journalist Kara Swisher. Roth has said he was forced to flee his home due to death threats he received after being doxxed following comments Musk made about him, as well as the release of the "Twitter Files."

Yaccarino addressed Roth's interview upon taking the stage.

"Yoel and I don't know each other," she said. "He doesn't know me. I don't know him. I work at X. He worked at Twitter. X is a new company building a foundation based on free expression and freedom of speech. Twitter, at the time, was operating on a different set of rules as said by himself, different philosophies and ideologies that were creeping down the road of censorship. It's a new day at X and I'll leave it at that."

Roth was billed as a surprise guest, but Swisher said Yaccarino was made aware of his appearance earlier in the day. The X CEO was offered the opportunity to appear onstage before him but decided to go on after for the chance to get the last word in, according to Swisher.

If Yaccarino is dropping out of the Journal's conference to focus on X's platform safety amid the crisis in Israel, Musk is certainly not making her job easier.

He recently told his 159 million followers to get updates on the conflict from two accounts known for peddling misinformation. Users pointed out the accounts' issues, and Musk deleted the post after three hours, but not before it was reportedly viewed by 11 million users.

The Wall Street Journal did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.