President Trump had choice words for his presumptive Democratic challenger’s new climate policy panel.
Joe Biden unveiled a broad campaign effort put together with the help of one-time rival Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday in hopes of increasing support among far-left Democrats. The former vice president’s initiative includes a task force on climate change, which will be co-chaired by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, known for proposals such as the Green New Deal, and former Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.
Speaking with Washington Examiner columnist Salena Zito on Thursday before delivering remarks at Owens & Minor Distribution Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Trump expressed disapproval of Biden’s choice for the panel and hypothesized that his likely November opponent doesn’t have control over his own campaign.
“First of all, if you asked him who he named, he wouldn’t even know it,” he said. “He doesn’t know. He didn’t put them there. Somebody did, and Joe has absolutely no idea what’s happening.”
The president specifically criticized the addition of Ocasio-Cortez to the panel, slamming the New York Democrat for her disdain for fossil fuels and her advocacy for renewable energy. The freshman congresswoman has vowed her Green New Deal would create millions of clean jobs in exchange for those lost by fossil fuel industries, which Trump said would not “work.”
“AOC is a disaster,” he said. “She wants all fossil fuels out. She wants everything out. She wants wind, which is expensive, kills all the birds. You know, I’m also an environmentalist. Wind is a disaster, and it doesn’t work.”
Trump pointed to states that largely rely on fossil fuels, many of which Sanders, a strong ally to Ocasio-Cortez, lost in the Democratic primary. He added that their calls to eliminate fossil fuels are more than “too left-wing” for most people.
“That’s not Left,” Trump said. “[I wouldn’t even] say communism because communists like fuel. It’s a crazy choice, and [Biden] has no idea who he chose. If you asked him right now, ‘Who did you choose?’ — and it’s not just for environment, it’s for energy — tell the people in Texas that you have AOC in charge of energy.”
Texas has accounted for over 25% of U.S. wind electricity generation in each of the past three years.
