DNC votes DOWN a ‘climate debate’ for 2020 candidates

The DNC today voted down a proposal to hold a climate debate between the candidates and one of the big ‘downers’ was Biden’s campaign:

HUFFPO – A panel of the Democratic National Committee on Thursday rejected a proposal to host a single-issue debate on the climate crisis.

At a party conference Thursday in San Francisco, the DNC’s resolutions committee voted 17-8 against a resolution that has become a cause célèbre for activists and for more than a dozen presidential contenders who felt the traditional debate format failed to adequately address the looming threat of catastrophe. The issue could resurface during the full committee’s general session on Saturday.

It was a predictable outcome. Top brass at the DNC opposed the climate debate from the get-go, fearing it could sow discord in the base and hamper the eventual nominee in the general election. CNN and MSNBC announced plans last month to host forums on climate change in September. DNC Chair Tom Perez affirmed the forums in a resolution introduced earlier this month, which some activists saw as setting the stage for voting down the climate debate.

Symone Sanders, a senior adviser of presidential candidate Joe Biden, was among those who urged the DNC on Thursday to vote down a climate debate, saying it would be “dangerous territory in the middle of a Democratic primary process.”

That contrasts with what Biden had earlier said during a campaign stop in Iowa this summer. The former vice president had endorsed having a climate debate, telling Greenpeace, “I’m all in.”

It’s odd that they don’t want to debate something that many of them claim is a looming, existential threat to the planet.

Biden, who said he was all in earlier this year has apparently changed his mind. Perhaps his lackluster debate performances and constant gaffes on the campaign trail have given them pause as to how well he would do going toe to toe with Bernie and Liz.

Or, maybe it’s his more moderate stance on Climate Change that they fear would hurt him in the long run, even if he wins the nomination.

In very much related news, Bernie said today that we MUST end fossil fuels, “end of discussion”:

Democrats really don’t like to debate Climate Change, aka Global Warming. What’s up with that?


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