Like the lemmings that they were, CNN reacted Monday afternoon with approval and admiration for Joe Biden’s “pointed” and “powerful” climate change speech that blamed “climate arsonist” President Trump for floods, hurricanes, and wildfires to threatened Americans by claiming that they would lose their homes to natural disasters if they didn’t vote for him.
Host and liberal hack Brianna Keilar gave chief political analyst Gloria Borger an open forum to respond to Biden’s speech, who declared Biden gave “a very powerful speech on many levels because what he did was he took the argument on how the President has handled COVID and the argument about how the President is denying climate science and joined them together and said he's anti-science.”
Continuing to show how Borger, Keilar, and Columbia University’s Adam Sobel wouldn’t be engaging in any so-called fact-checks and juvenile meltdowns, Borger boasted of Biden’s incendiary rhetoric telling Americans that, if they don’t want their homes to blown to pieces, burned, or flooded, they should vote for him:
And he also turned the President's campaign on its head by saying, you know, the President says your cities are going to burn. And he said look, your suburbs are going to burn and they're going to burn from — from wildfires. And so what you have in a candidate of Joe Biden, what's so interesting to me. He started out this campaign saying he was going to be a transitional candidate. What he's talking about here in terms of climate science is transformational and what he's proposing to do is very large[.]
In the four minutes immediately afterward, the lines were blurred between the Biden campaign and Zuckerville with chyrons such as these:
- Biden: Trump Has No Interest in “Meeting this Moment” of Crisis
- Biden: Trump Says Minorities Will Threaten Suburbs, But “How Many Suburbs Will Be Burned...Flooded Out...Blown Away?”
- Biden: America Will Be Ablaze If “Climate Arsonist” Trump Is Reelected
- Biden: Trump Rejects Science, Spreads Blame Amid Crises
Keilar went to Sobel and the two spoke as if they were Biden campaign aides, gaming out the next steps and showing a dismissive aversion to people who weren’t on board with Biden’s message (click “expand”):
KEILAR: Yeah and he said it won't be easy but it's necessary. Professor Sobel, what did you think about the proposals that you heard from the former vice president?
SOBEL: I very much support them. I was very encouraged by his speech. I think it's great that vice president has taken on board, not only climate science but the climate advocates from the youth movement, Sunrise and others who have been connecting the climate problem to broader social justice agenda. I’m just very heartened. I think it's the right way to go and he did that in his speech.
KEILAR: And this — he seemed to be emphasizing over and over, grounded in science. Because you can't really — you can't overstate how, I guess, different the choice would be between Joe Biden or Donald Trump because, I mean, President Trump's plan, when it comes to climate are — they're really nonexistent. They're based in fantasy and Joe Biden is talking about what scientists say, what is accepted science. But there's also this — this line he has to walk when it comes to jobs, right? Because we're seeing the solution aversion that many people have to admitting there even is a problem because they are so concerned about the cost that this would have on the economy. What did you think, professor, about him trying to make that pivot when it came to jobs?
SOBEL: I think he's right to see climate as not an anti-jobs issue but a pro-jobs one. I mean, we’ve heard this line for a long time that it costs too much to address human-induced global warming, but it costs too much not to. I mean, we see that now. The — the most realistic cost estimates show that — that the damages outweigh the cost, considered realistically. Even just air pollution. I mean, new research shows air pollution health benefits of cleaning up carbon emissions. The air pollution is normally considered a co-benefit That alone makes it worth transitioning to a low-carbon or no carbon economy. So, I think he's right. You know, the – the President's trying to prop up the fossil fuel industry. We see that every which way. You said he has no agenda. It’s worse than no agenda. It's a — it’s a backward looking agenda and you're right, the choice couldn't be more stark.
Pivoting to Biden’s “climate arsonist” line, Keilar showed her endorsement for rhetoric when it fits her views by refusing to denounce it. Instead, she told Borger that it was “pretty pointed.”
Borger used the remaining time to shill for Biden, regurgitating his speech as based entirely in fact and defended him by falsely claiming that he supports fracking (for more on that, check out our friends at the Daily Caller and National Review) (click “expand”):
What he's saying is that by sitting back and doing nothing, and by saying you to — you know, sweep your — he said — gotta clean yours floors in your forest, he's denying what happened in front of him. And again it is this — he — he sort of encapsulated it in this — in this notion he spoke about is a failure to lead. And what he is saying is he had a failure to lead on the pandemic and you see that because of his refusal to listen to the science and he is refusing to lead on climate change because of his refusal to listen to science here. And Joe Biden said, look, I'm curious what the president is going to say today.
And when the President says, you know, Biden wants fracking. Well, this is one of — of the lines Joe Biden has had walk here. He is not opposed to fracking. He has said that directly. It makes a lot of people upset of the — who are liberal — more liberal in the party, but he has walked a fine line here and this is really what's important, I think. He's making this into a jobs program. The civilian climate corps kind of reminds you of Roosevelt and he is saying this is going to be a job creator for union jobs and that's what I want to turn it into. So, he's trying to turn the President's argument on its head and we'll have to see how the President responds to it this afternoon.
CNN’s hatred for Trump voters and support for Biden’s rhetoric was made possible by advertisers such as (but not limited to) IHOP, Nutrisystem, and USAA. Follow the links to the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant CNN transcript from September 14, click “expand.”
CNN Newsroom
September 14, 2020
1:54 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; Biden: Trump Has No Interest in “Meeting this Moment” of Crisis]
BRIANNA KEILAR: Alright, I want to bring in chief political analyst Gloria Borger. Adam Sorbel, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia as well. As we heard former vice president Joe Biden addressing this issue of climate change, which we're seeing play out before our eyes with these severe weather events that we have seen increasingly here in recent years. Gloria to you first, what did you think about this speech?
GLORIA BORGER: Well, I thought it was a very powerful speech on many levels because what he did was he took the argument on how the President has handled COVID and the argument about how the President is denying climate science and joined them together and said he's anti-science. And he also turned the President's campaign on its head by saying, you know, the President says your cities are going to burn. And he said look, your suburbs are going to burn and they're going to burn from — from wildfires. And so what you have in a candidate of Joe Biden, what's so interesting to me. He started out this campaign saying he was going to be a transitional candidate. What he's talking about here in terms of climate science is transformational and what he's proposing to do is very large and join, you know, more liberal wing in the Democratic Party and the more moderate, I mean, and the more moderate wing of the Republican party so they can see what he is proposing and convince him to vote for him and stay with him.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; Biden: Trump Says Minorities Will Threaten Suburbs, But “How Many Suburbs Will Be Burned...Flooded Out...Blown Away?”]
KEILAR: Yeah and he said it won't be easy but it's necessary. Professor Sobel, what did you think about the proposals that you heard from the former vice president?
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; Biden: American Will Be Ablaze If “Climate Arsonist” Trump Is Reelected]
ADAM SOBEL: I very much support them. I was very encouraged by his speech. I think it's great that vice president has taken on board, not only climate science but the climate advocates from the youth movement, Sunrise and others who have been connecting the climate problem to broader social justice agenda. I’m just very heartened. I think it's the right way to go and he did that in his speech.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; Biden: Trump Rejects Science, Spreads Blame Amid Crises]
KEILAR: And this — he seemed to be emphasizing over and over, grounded in science. Because you can't really — you can't overstate how, I guess, different the choice would be between Joe Biden or Donald Trump because, I mean, President Trump's plan, when it comes to climate are — they're really nonexistent. They're based in fantasy and Joe Biden is talking about what scientists say, what is accepted science. But there's also this — this line he has to walk when it comes to jobs, right? Because we're seeing the solution aversion that many people have to admitting there even is a problem because they are so concerned about the cost that this would have on the economy. What did you think, professor, about him trying to make that pivot when it came to jobs?
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; Biden: Trump Has No Interest in “Meeting this Moment” of Crisis]
SOBEL: I think he's right to see climate as not an anti-jobs issue but a pro-jobs one. I mean, we’ve heard this line for a long time that it costs too much to address human-induced global warming, but it costs too much not to. I mean, we see that now. The — the most realistic cost estimates show that — that the damages outweigh the cost, considered realistically. Even just air pollution. I mean, new research shows air pollution health benefits of cleaning up carbon emissions. The air pollution is normally considered a co-benefit That alone makes it worth transitioning to a low-carbon or no carbon economy. So, I think he's right. You know, the – the President's trying to prop up the fossil fuel industry. We see that every which way. You said he has no agenda. It’s worse than no agenda. It's a — it’s a backward looking agenda and you're right, the choice couldn't be more stark.
KEILAR: Gloria, the rhetoric here. I mean, this was pretty pointed. He called President Trump a— not just a climate denier, he called him a climate arsonist.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; Biden: American Will Be Ablaze If “Climate Arsonist” Trump Is Reelected]
BORGER: Right. What he's saying is that by sitting back and doing nothing, and by saying you to — you know, sweep your — he said — gotta clean yours floors in your forest, he's denying what happened in front of him. And again it is this — he — he sort of encapsulated it in this — in this notion he spoke about is a failure to lead. And what he is saying is he had a failure to lead on the pandemic and you see that because of his refusal to listen to the science and he is refusing to lead on climate change because of his refusal to listen to science here. And Joe Biden said, look, I'm curious what the president is going to say today. And when the President says, you know, Biden wants fracking. Well, this is one of — of the lines Joe Biden has had walk here. He is not opposed to fracking. He has said that directly. It makes a lot of people upset of the — who are liberal — more liberal in the party, but he has walked a fine line here and this is really what's important, I think. He's making this into a jobs program. The civilian climate corps kind of reminds you of Roosevelt and he is saying this is going to be a job creator for union jobs and that's what I want to turn it into. So, he's trying to turn the President's argument on its head and we'll have to see how the President responds to it this afternoon.
KEILAR: Alright, Gloria, Adam, thank you so much.
