While in Arizona at The Grand Canyon, President Biden granted a rare interview to The Weather Channel and meteorologist Stephanie Abrams for Wednesday’s America’s Morning Headquarters. Abrams used her opportunity to lob some softballs Biden’s way as well as to push him further to the left on environmental issues.
Abrams immediately got off to a poor start by suggesting Republicans don’t like people drinking water, “You just announced measures to protect workers from dangerous heat. What do you say to states like Texas that just passed a law to strip the ability of local authorities to mandate water breaks for their workers?”
Naturally, Biden called it “cruel” and “outrageous,” but the Texas law in question isn’t about water breaks, rather it is about standardizing regulations in the state.
A few minutes later, Abrams got in all the left-wing buzz words as she asked, “They're also an environmental justice issue. Because climate change is disproportionately hurting people of color and people below the poverty line. What is your administration doing to address environmental justice?”
After Biden repeated the story about driving to school with his mother in Delaware and claiming “we're focusing on those areas to get the help first, first, first and 40 percent of it is going to go to them,” Abrams hit him from the left:
Let's talk Gen Z because they're gonna play a big role in the next presidential election. And many of them are angry about the 7,000 oil and gas permits you approved since you've been in office. You promised no new drilling on federal land or offshore, can you tell Gen Z that you haven’t broken your promise?
For his part, Biden blamed the courts while also touting “the private sector is coming off the sidelines and invested $250 billion in alternative energy.”
Next, Abrams wondered if the U.S. was among the good guys, “Climate scientists say that we have five years to avert global temperature increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius. And yet, the United States is one of the top emitters. Does this make the United States look hypocritical on the world stage?”
Biden replied by lamenting Republicans haven’t voted for his environmental policies and hyped future of electric cars and “We're now paying farmers to plant crops that absorb carbon from the air. And we pay them to do it and its millions of acres, so we are making significant progress. But it's a constant fight.”
On immigration, Abrams also attempted to push Biden further to the left, “Climate change knows no borders, right? Everyone’s affected by this. Is it the responsibility of the U.S. to protect migrants who might be fleeing extreme weather in their countries?”
In one of his typical Biden Moments, Biden began by claiming “the United States should do everything it can to help people who are in desperate need and have no other means of help” before going on about “lead pipes all across America and throughout the country,” Brazil, and how “I've got the G7 nations agreeing that we're going to build infrastructure to provide for alternative energy sources in Africa and South America.”
Abrams also got in some typical environmental doom-mongering “Mr. President, you called climate change a code red for humanity. The World Health Organization said it would cause an additional quarter of a million deaths a year starting in 2030. Are you prepared to declare a national emergency with respect to climate change?”
Biden claimed that “I’ve already done that. National-- we've conserved more land, we’ve moved-- we rejoined the Paris Climate Accord, we passed the $368 billion climate control facility, we're moving. It is the existential threat to humanity.”
In related media news, CNN has already fact-checked that statement labeled it incorrect, so the media really can fact-check Biden in real time, just only from the left.
This interview was sponsored by Verizon.
Here is a transcript for the August 9 show:
The Weather Channel America’s Morning Headquarters
8/9/2023
6:01 AM ET
STEPHANIE ABRAMS: You just announced measures to protect workers from dangerous heat. What do you say to states like Texas that just passed a law to strip the ability of local authorities to mandate water breaks for their workers?
JOE BIDEN: I think it's cruel, I think it's outrageous, I think it's consistent with what the governor down there is doing. You know, they have more, cheaper, electric-- excuse me cheaper wind and solar energy than any other state, and he wants to cut it back so they can have more oil. I don't get these guys.
…
6:04 AM ET
ABRAMS: They're also an environmental justice issue. Because climate change is disproportionately hurting people of color and people below the poverty line. What is your administration doing to address environmental justice?
BIDEN: Forty percent of all of the funding is going to go to those people. Look, I was raised in a town called Claymont, Delaware.
ABRAMS: Okay.
BIDEN: When you got up in the morning, my mother would drive us to a little Catholic school we went to, three-quarters-of-a mile up the Philadelphia Pike. The first day of frost, she’d turn on the windshield wiper, there'd be an oil slick. Higher cancer rates than almost anywhere in America. I understand what these frontline communities are going through. Route 9 in Delaware, same thing. Look at what's going on in Louisiana. So we're focusing on those areas to get the help first, first, first and 40 percent of it is going to go to them.
ABRAMS: Let's talk Gen Z because they're gonna play a big role in the next presidential election. And many of them are angry about the 7,000 oil and gas permits you approved since you've been in office. You promised no new drilling on federal land or offshore, can you tell Gen Z that you haven’t broken your promise?
BIDEN: Yes, because the courts overrule me. Court said I couldn't do it. I wanted to stop all drilling on the east coast and the west coast in the Gulf. But I lost in court. But we're still pushing. We're still pushing really, very hard. Look, the alternative is you get -- everything is better as we-- the private sector is coming off the sidelines and invested $250 billion in alternative energy.
They're building solar facilities, there's building, you know, there’s electrolysers to take hydrogen and turn in—I mean there’s so much going on, finally, finally, no one can any longer deny that we don't have a problem with climate change.
ABRAMS: Climate scientists say that we have five years to avert global temperature increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius. And yet, the United States is one of the top emitters. Does this make the United States look hypocritical on the world stage?
BIDEN: No, no, let’s get it straight.
ABRAMS: Okay.
BIDEN: The United States was the top emitter along with China for a long time because we emit more than any other country. And that was before climate change anything began, it's part of the reason why we have a problem and so what we're doing is notwithstanding not a single solitary person in the other party voted for my $368 billion climate change-- not one of them. They're all, kind of, taking credit now, I find it kind of interesting, but my point is that if we are making significant progress. For example, every vehicle in America by 2050 will be an electric vehicle. By 2030, 50 percent are electric vehicles, saving billions of gallons of -- not burning oil, but also the environment's going to be saved. Look, the other thing we're doing, we have over 66,000 farms. We're now paying farmers to plant crops that absorb carbon from the air. And we pay them to do it and its millions of acres, so we are making significant progress. But it's a constant fight.
…
6:11 AM ET
ABRAMS: Climate change knows no borders, right? Everyone’s affected by this. Is it the responsibility of the U.S. to protect migrants who might be fleeing extreme weather in their countries?
BIDEN: Look, I think the United States should do everything it can to help people who are in desperate need and have no other means of help. And we've always done that. It is not—it is who we are, we’re the United States of America and the idea to begrudge the ability to do, for example, one of the things we're doing is providing for changing the environment, the physical structures, in the countries which they come from.
So, they don't have-- so they have better lighting. They have more secure, for example, you have all-- so many lead pipes all across America and throughout the country. You have 440,000 schools, you turn on the water fountain, and you may have led in the water. And so thousands of people who-- we are replacing every single lead pipe in America.
We are loaning people money to do that and we’re help-- I'm going to be meeting with the president of Brazil. For example, Brazil and the Amazon is more of a carbon—you’re taking carbon out of the air than any other place in the world.
It absorbs as much carbon in a day as America emits in a day. So it is overwhelming. We're also working together and I've got the G7 nations agreeing that we're going to build infrastructure to provide for alternative energy sources in Africa and South America. All of this coming together because it’s in the interest of Europe, it's in the interest of the north, it's in the interest of the United States to see that happen. So there's a lot of things that we are doing, a lot of it requires international engagement as well.
…
6:29 AM ET
ABRAMS: Mr. President, you called climate change a code red for humanity. The World Health Organization said it would cause an additional quarter of a million deaths a year starting in 2030. Are you prepared to declare a national emergency with respect to climate change?
BIDEN: I’ve already done that. National-- we've conserved more land, we’ve moved-- we rejoined the Paris Climate Accord, we passed the $368 billion climate control facility, we're moving. It is the existential threat to humanity.
