Fox News co-host Pete Hegseth criticized 2020 presidential hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont for being concerned about climate change, lamenting the fact that "young kids voting" are worried about the global threat.
"The left says it all the time, it is their religion," Hegseth said Tuesday morning on Fox News morning show Fox & Friends after a clip of Sanders classifying climate change as the "major national security issue" for the U.S. was played. "They want to fight the weather. The rest of us want to deal with real threats that want to take away our freedoms."
Hegseth then made a comparison to President Donald Trump working to destroy the extremist group the Islamist State (or ISIS). "That's taking on a real threat directly," Hegseth said.
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"Whether it's hot or cold, the enemy is here as far as liberals are concerned," he continued. "And it's all about control for them. That's why climate change is the perfect enemy," Hegseth said, lamenting the fact that climate change is currently taught at American institutions of higher education.
"By the way, it's what they're learning at college. They're not learning about radical Islam, they're learning about environmentalism and radical environmentalism," Hegseth said. "That's why these messages catch on, because young kids voting believe it."
Despite skepticism by Hegseth as well as many other right-wing pundits and politicians, including Trump, climate change is well-established by science. According to NASA, at least 97 percent of scientists regularly publishing on environmental science agree that climate change is caused by human activity over the last century. A report by the United Nations has warned that the world has a little more than a decade to take serious action to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and pollution before there is an irreversible impact on the global environment.
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Despite the dire reality, Trump has previously argued the climate change is a "hoax" and cut environmental regulations. He also withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord, which was signed by the administration of his predecessor, former President Barack Obama. As Syria and Nicaragua have since signed the international treaty, the U.S. is now the only country in the world that is not privy to the agreement aimed at addressing environmental concerns.
The president and right-wing supporters have repeatedly confused weather with climate. Over the winter, Trump incorrectly suggested multiple times that exceptionally cold weather in the U.S. proved climate change, also known as global warming, was inaccurate. That assertion demonstrates a misunderstanding of the science, which points to a drastically changing climate with more severe weather conditions, including extreme heat and extreme cold.
About the writer
Jason Lemon is a Senior Politics Editor at Newsweek based in Brooklyn, New York. Prior to taking on the editor role, Jason's reporting focused ... Read more