During a softball interview on Thursday with former Secretary of State and newly appointed special envoy for climate change John Kerry, MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell teed him up to sell the Biden administration’s radical environmental agenda and even fretted over how the U.S. could restore its climate “credibility” with authoritarian regimes in Russia and China.
“President Biden is tackling of course an enormous threat, the crisis of climate change,” Mitchell hailed at the top of the fawning segment. She continued pushing the administration’s talking points: “He’s taking it head on, taking executive actions on multiple fronts on Wednesday and making job creation the central pillar of his climate agenda.”
Turning to Kerry, Mitchell touted how he has “been focused on this for years,” and claimed: “The public has been ahead of the politicians in pushing for bold action.” She enthusiastically parroted White House spin that policies that would the destroy the fossil fuel industry would somehow create jobs: “But now you’ve got the business community, you’ve got Wall Street, General Motors urging action, electric cars....Is the focus on jobs possibly going to make a difference when it comes to legislating?”
Kerry argued: “Well, I hope it will. It’s just one of the realities, Andrea. It’s not made up in order to make the argument. It’s happening all around the world.”
Of course Mitchell never bothered to mention Biden’s executive order cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline in the name of fighting climate change, a move that killed thousands of jobs and created diplomatic tension with America’s closest ally, Canada.
Instead, she followed up minutes later by wondering how the administration could get rid of internal combustion vehicles:
Well, let me ask you about some of these big goals. A half million new electric charging stations that the federal government will help create, a million new auto manufacturing jobs, 1.5 million energy-efficient homes, zero emissions in 30 years. Yet you’ve got people like Senator Cornyn saying that you’ve got 280 million, you know, combustible engine cars on the roads right now. How do you change all that?
After Kerry proclaimed that “all of the world has to be at the table,” Mitchell worried that the U.S. had lost “credibility” on the issue with dictatorial adversaries like Russia and China:
How do we get our credibility back, Mr. Secretary, with China and Russia and the rest of the world? Because they could just say, “We’re gonna wait them out, we can’t trust America anymore.” How do you get China and Russia, given all the other problem we have with them, which you know so well, to re-engage and take us seriously?
Kerry assured her that rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement – something completely unenforceable on nations like Russia and China – would somehow improved America’s global standing:
Well, that’s exactly what President Biden did on the day of inauguration when he immediately signed up to the Paris agreement. He didn’t waste any time, we’re back in the Paris agreement. That’s a restoration of credibility. Yesterday was an enormous restoration of credibility.
He then slammed anyone critical of the radical climate policy agenda: “This is so logical. I don’t understand the opposition. I don’t think there’s any gain in it politically because massively the polling shows that Americans understand this is a crisis and we need to address it.”
Mitchell responded by applauding his partisan efforts: “Well, President Biden said it was a big ask to ask you to take it on. You are clearly a man with a mission. Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for being with us today.”
Leftist media lackeys like Mitchell are not interested in holding Democratic public officials accountable, she’s only interested in selling their agenda and covering up the damaging impact of their proposals.
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Here is a transcript of the January 28 exchange:
12:40 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: President Biden is tackling of course an enormous threat, the crisis of climate change. He’s taking it head on, taking executive actions on multiple fronts on Wednesday and making job creation the central pillar of his climate agenda.
JOE BIDEN: Today is climate day at the White House, and – which means that today is jobs day at the White House. We’ve already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis. We can’t wait any longer.
MITCHELL: And joining me now is John Kerry, special presidential envoy for climate change. The former Secretary of State, of course, former senator and presidential nominee. Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for being with us.
JOHN KERRY: Happy to be with you. Thank you, Andrea.
MITCHELL: I wanted to ask you about the public acceptance or the push-back against this very big climate agenda. The public has been ahead of the politicians in pushing for bold action. But now you’ve got the business community, you’ve got Wall Street, General Motors urging action, electric cars. You, of course, have been focused on this for years, I know from listening to you and going to, you know, private forums you’ve held. Is the focus on jobs possibly going to make a difference when it comes to legislating?
KERRY: Well, I hope it will. It’s just one of the realities, Andrea. It’s not made up in order to make the argument. It’s happening all around the world.
(...)
MITCHELL: Well, let me ask you about some of these big goals. A half million new electric charging stations that the federal government will help create, a million new auto manufacturing jobs, 1.5 million energy-efficient homes, zero emissions in 30 years. Yet you’ve got people like Senator Cornyn saying that you’ve got 280 million, you know, combustible engine cars on the roads right now. How do you change all that?
(...)
MITCHELL: Let me play something that Mitch McConnell had to say yesterday.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL [R-KY]: Mr. Kerry admitted yesterday that even if the United States somehow brought our carbon emissions to zero, it wouldn’t make much difference. This piecemeal Green New Deal is the wrong prescription.
MITCHELL: And that was Mitch McConnell just this morning, I’m sorry. If you can respond.
KERRY: Well, first of all, I didn’t say it wouldn’t make any difference. I said it won't make the difference that will save us from the problem, because all of the world has to be at the table. The only point I was making, we need to reduce our emissions. We are the second largest emitter in the world. If you put China and the United States together, that’s almost 50% of all the emissions in the world.
(...)
MITCHELL: How do we get our credibility back, Mr. Secretary, with China and Russia and the rest of the world? Because they could just say, “We’re gonna wait them out, we can’t trust America anymore.” How do you get China and Russia, given all the other problem we have with them, which you know so well, to re-engage and take us seriously?
KERRY: Well, that’s exactly what President Biden did on the day of inauguration when he immediately signed up to the Paris agreement. He didn’t waste any time, we’re back in the Paris agreement. That’s a restoration of credibility. Yesterday was an enormous restoration of credibility.
(...)
KERRY: This is so logical. I don’t understand the opposition. I don’t think there’s any gain in it politically because massively the polling shows that Americans understand this is a crisis and we need to address it.
MITCHELL: Well, President Biden said it was a big ask to ask you to take it on. You are clearly a man with a mission. Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for being with us today.
(...)
