With Climate Change As One Of Tonight’s Debate Issues, Here Are Four Key Questions
With the climate crisis as one of the topics for tonight’s Presidential debate, here are four key questions from the DNC Council on Environment and Climate Crisis:
Will Trump’s answers be on the same planet as fact and reality? In the first debate, Trump lied about his own environmental record, the Paris climate accord, the root causes of California’s historic wildfires, the job-destroying impact of his harmful pollution policies, and, of course, Joe Biden’s record and plan. Will tonight be a repeat performance?
Will Trump continue to deny science? Throughout his first term, Trump has denied the reality and science of the climate crisis, denying the root causes and the impacts on our economy and national security. He has refused time and time again to say the climate crisis is caused by human activity and has gotten exponentially worse during the last four years. Will he continue to deny science tonight?
Will Biden explain how his plan will lead to a green economic recovery? With the United States facing some of the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression, will Joe Biden use the debate to explain how the Biden Plan will create millions of new sustainable jobs to ensure the economic recovery is a green economic recovery. Can he successfully break through tonight and spell out his plan?
What role will moderator Kristen Welker play in helping voters understand the candidates’ positions? Despite the historic nature of the questioning around the climate crisis in the first debate, Chris Wallace framed the question around climate change as if the science is not settled on the issue and did not press Trump hard on his repeated lies. How the moderator frames questions and what follow-ups they choose to ask play a big role in how viewers understand the issues and how the candidates answer. What role will Welker play in the debate on these issues?
The climate crisis is not coming. It is here. Now. And we need leaders who understand this and have comprehensive plans to fight it. The debate tonight, and how these key questions are answered, are vital to ensuring we have leadership in the White House that will address this growing crisis.