Indiana Gov. Mike Pence disregarded past tweets by Donald Trump on Chinese pushing climate change as an issue, arguing they were “flippant” and “joking” in nature and not to be taken seriously.
Appearing on NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday morning, Pence was responding to a 2012 tweet from Trump in which said global warming was “created by and for the Chinese” in an effort to cripple U.S. manufacturing, a notion Pence dismissed before changing the subject to jobs. Hillary Clinton brought up the comment during Monday night’s debate, which Trump said he never said.
The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012
“That, by the way, was a flippant and joking comment,” Pence said.
“What Donald Trump’s position is is that the hoax is that some bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., can change the climate of the Earth,” Pence said. “The other piece of this is that Donald Trump and I both know that Hillary Clinton’s plans and Barack Obama’s plans on climate change are going to continue to cost millions of American jobs. I thought the big win for Donald Trump last night was that he really focused on jobs.
“He focused not on the tax increases that Hillary Clinton is advocating, but tax relief for family small businesses, family farms, making America more competitive, and that means pushing back on this radical climate change agenda that Hillary Clinton wants to advance,” Pence added.
