President Trump said Tuesday he doesn’t want Republicans to kill the Green New Deal yet because he wants to be able to run against it in his 2020 reelection campaign.
“We will have to do something [about the Green New Deal]. But don’t do it too early please, don’t kill it, because we want to be able to run against it,” Trump told Republicans at the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner Tuesday night. “If they beat me with the Green New Deal, I deserve to lose.”
Trump said he’s going to say the Green New Deal is “a wonderful thing” so he will get the opportunity to run against it in the 2020 elections.
Trump said several veteran Democrats are standing behind the Green New Deal, and its co-sponsor freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., because “they’re petrified of her.”
He also poked fun at the fact that Ocasio-Cortez is 29 years old and used to work as a bartender in New York City before running for office.
Last Tuesday, senators were able to block a resolution to move forward with the plan by holding a vote on the proposal, a move Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., says he made to force Democrats to show where they stand on the Green New Deal.
Not one senator voted in favor of the Green New Deal, but most Democrats instead voted “present,” despite several of those same lawmakers claiming they would vote in favor of the plan.
The Green New Deal is a massive climate and economic overhaul that would ultimately end the use of fossil fuels and seek to fully address climate change concerns.
