Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted that the vote on the Green New Deal last month was a “show vote,” but acknowledged that climate change was real, during a Wednesday interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier.
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Baier asked, “Legislatively, one of the things you have major votes on—and you mentioned it—is to criticize Democrats and vote on the Green New Deal just to put Democrat presidential hopefuls in the Senate on this and on the record. You decried what you called show votes during the government shutdown. How was that not a show vote?”
“Well, it was,” McConnell conceded, before adding, “But I don’t intend to spend all of our time doing that sort of thing, but once in a while people ought to go on the record and decide whether they’re willing to vote for what they say they are for. I mean, when we had the Green New Deal vote in the Senate, only four Democrats voted against it. The rest of them voted present. including people who co-sponsored it. I think we should assume all the rest of them are actually in favor of this job-killing proposal.”
“Do you think Congress should do anything to fight climate change?” Baier asked. (RELATED: Ocasio-Cortez: I Didn’t ‘Expect’ GOP ‘To Make Total Fools Of Themselves’ About Green New Deal)
“Yeah, I believe that climate change is certainly happening,” McConnell answered. “I think it ought to be addressed by technology, and not by having the government shut down our economy and cause us to lose an incredible number of jobs.”
U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey hold a news conference for their proposed “Green New Deal” to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in 10 years, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., Feb. 7, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
The Green New Deal, which Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has championed, is a piece of draft legislation to create a committee to come up with a plan to completely shift the United States off of fossil fuels within 10 years. The plan also calls for a host of social welfare programs.
The Senate failed to pass the resolution on the Green New Deal last month. There were 57 votes against the resolution and 43 senators who voted “present.” The vote was relatively down party lines, with every Republican voting against it and all but three Democrats voting “present.” Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama, and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted against the resolution.