Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden ripped President Trump for denying climate change as much of the country’s west is ravaged by wildfires and is blanketed by an orange haze of smoke.
“If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised that more of America is ablaze?” Biden asked reporters during a speech in Delaware.
Trump wasn’t to blame for the recent spate of fires, hurricanes, and floods, according to Biden. But the two-term vice president warned that if voters reward the incumbent with a second term, “these hellish events will continue to become more common, more devastating, and more deadly.”
“We have to act as a nation,” Biden said. “It shouldn’t be so bad that millions of Americans live in the shadow of an orange sky and are left asking, ‘Is doomsday here?'”
For Biden, Trump’s denial of climate change science was similar to his denial of coronavirus pandemic science, saying that neither was “a partisan phenomenon.” Climate change also exacerbated racial inequalities, he added.
“This is another crisis he won’t take responsibility for,” Biden said. “This is the same president who threw paper towels at the people of Puerto Rico instead of truly helping them recover and rebuild.”
California Sen. Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, is flying to her home state Monday night so that she can meet with emergency service personnel on Tuesday and be briefed on the fires.
Harris’s trip was announced after Biden released a statement on Saturday consoling those affected by the blazes in California, Oregon, and Washington state, from residents to first responders.
“The science is clear, and deadly signs like these are unmistakable — climate change poses an imminent, existential threat to our way of life. President Trump can try to deny that reality, but the facts are undeniable,” he wrote. “We absolutely must act now to avoid a future defined by an unending barrage of tragedies like the one American families are enduring across the West today.”
Trump, a climate skeptic who tends to blame forest management for widespread damage, is visiting California on Monday.
