A question about human-caused global warming and how Republicans can win over younger voters concerned about climate change stirred heated exchanges between the GOP candidates on Wednesday night’s presidential debate stage.
Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy asserted he was the lone candidate “who isn’t bought and paid” on the issue, eliciting boos from the audience assembled for the Milwaukee event and scoffs from rival White House hopefuls.
“Let us be honest, as Republicans, I’m the only person on the stage who isn’t bought and paid for, so I can say this: the climate change agenda is a hoax,” Mr. Ramaswamy said. “The reality is the anti-carbon agenda is the wet blanket on our economy. The reality is more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he’d “had enough” of Mr. Ramaswamy, a political newcomer who’s bolted to third in the polls in recent weeks.
“I’ve had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT stand up here,” Mr. Christie said. “The last person in one of these debates who stood in the middle of the stage and said, ‘what’s a skinny guy with an odd last name doing up here?’ was Barack Obama, and I’m afraid we’re dealing with the same type of amateur.”
Mr. Ramaswamy responded: “Give me a hug just like you did to Obama, and you’ll help elect me just like you did to Obama.”
Other candidates responded with more substantive answers while rejecting the notion they were somehow compromised on the environment.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina chided his opponents of “going back and forth being childish” before saying the best way to address the environment is to “bring jobs home from China.”
“Here’s what the American people deserve, is a debate about the issues that affect their lives. Going back and forth being childish, it’s not helpful to the American people to decide the next leader,” Mr. Scott said. “If we create 10 million new jobs with my ‘Made in America’ plan, we will have a better economy and a better environment.”
Former U.N. Ambassador and ex-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley acknowledged climate change was real, but said that the Biden administration’s focus on clean energy has put too much reliance on foreign competitors like China for critical minerals needed in electric vehicle batteries. She also said other major polluting countries have failed to do their fair share to slash emissions.
“If you want to go and really change the environment, then we need to start telling China and India that they have to lower their emissions,” Ms. Haley said. “These green subsidies that Biden has put in, all he’s done is helped China.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accused mainstream media of being “one of the reasons our country is in decline” over bias toward Democrats. He ridiculed the coverage of Mr. Biden’s sluggish responses to recent natural disasters like the Hawaii wildfires and a first-ever tropical storm in Southern California that coincided with a 5.1 magnitude earthquake.
However, Mr. DeSantis declined to state whether he believed in human-caused climate change, despite backing initiatives to fight the impacts of it as governor of a state that’s frequently struck by hurricanes, flooding and other natural disasters.
“As somebody that’s handled disasters in Florida, you got to be activated,” he said. “You got to be there. You got to be present. You got to be helping people.”
From afar in Washington, Mr. Biden was quick to chime in on the subject.
“Climate change is real, by the way,” he tweeted.
Climate Power, a Swiss billionaire-backed environmental group, was also quick to the punch.
“We’re less than an hour into the first debate, and the MAGA extremists on stage have spent the majority of the time calling climate change a hoax, chanting drill-baby-drill and plotting the death of the clean energy job boom,” Climate Power Executive Director Lori Lodes said in a statement. “This is what the 2024 election is about — and GOP candidates are wildly out of touch with voters.”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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