Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz used the climate portion of Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate with Republican Sen. JD Vance to lambast GOP nominee Donald Trump’s pledge to give the oil and gas industry free rein in exchange for a billion dollars in campaign donations — an offer that’s the subject of an ongoing Senate investigation.
” Donald Trump called it a hoax and then joked that these things would make more beachfront property to be able to invest in,” Walz, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris running mate, said of the climate emergency. “To call it a hoax and to take the oil company executives to Mar-a-Lago, say, ‘Give me money for my campaign and I’ll let you do whatever you want’ — we can be smarter about that.”
Walz’s remarks came in response to a question from CBS moderator Norah O’Donnell, who asked what the youth-led Sunrise Movement called perhaps “the best climate questions ever in a presidential or vice presidential debate.”
Connecting the climate crisis to Hurricane Helene, which left a trail of destruction across six states and killed more than 160 people, O’Donnell noted that “scientists say climate change makes these hurricanes larger, stronger, and more deadly because of the historic rainfall.”
“Senator Vance, according to CBS News polling, seven in ten Americans and more than 60% of Republicans under the age of 45 favor the U.S. taking steps to try and reduce climate change,” O’Donnell said. “Senator, what responsibility would the Trump administration have to try and reduce the impact of climate change?”
In response, Vance called Hurricane Helene an “unspeakable human tragedy” but went on to suggest he doubts “this idea that carbon emissions drives [sic] all the climate change.”
The youth-led Sunrise Movement, whose activists protested outside CBS News headquarters in New York City earlier this week to demand a climate question at the vice presidential debate, called Vance’s answer “utter nonsense” that made “clear that a Trump-Vance administration would do nothing to stop the climate crisis and prevent more disasters like Helene because they don’t want to upset their fossil fuel billionaire donors.”
“Tim Walz delivered a winning message calling out Trump’s allegiance to Big Oil. This is the kind of message Harris and Walz need to repeat going into November to turn out young voters,” said Stevie O’Hanlon, Sunrise’s communications director. “Especially after Hurricane Helene, the climate crisis will be on young voters’ minds as we head to the polls in the coming weeks. The Harris-Walz campaign has an opportunity to definitively show that they are the only ones with a real plan to tackle the climate crisis, and win this election.”
Walz did face criticism, though, from Oil Change U.S., which rebuked the Minnesota governor’s expressed support for an “all-of-the-above” energy policy. Walz touted the fact that the U.S. is currently “producing more natural gas and more oil at any time than we ever have” while “also producing more clean energy.”
“Disasters like Helene are driven and turbo-charged by fossil fuels,” said Oil Change U.S. campaign manager Collin Rees. “We can’t solar-panel our way out of this crisis while continuing to drill and frack. Today’s catastrophes demand bold, uncompromising leadership. Tim Walz and Kamala Harris must step up to halt fossil fuel expansion, champion clean energy, and advance a just phaseout of oil, gas, and coal to protect our communities from escalating climate impacts.”
Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, likely the only one before the November 5 election, touched a wide range of subjects, from abortion rights to Iran’s retaliatory attack on Israel to the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
Vance downplayed the attack on the U.S. Capitol and Trump’s central role in it, saying the former president “peacefully gave over power.” Vance also declined to say whether Trump lost the 2020 election, declaring that he is “focused on the future.”
“JD Vance dodged the easiest question of the night,” said Sean Eldridge, founder and president of Stand Up America. “His refusal to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election should be disqualifying. Vance has previously said he would not have certified the valid results of the 2020 election if he was vice president. It is clear that he cannot be trusted to stand up to Trump, uphold his oath of office, and defend our freedom to vote.”