Joe Biden has lashed out at climate change deniers in a Texas border speech as wildfires continue to rage across the state.
Speaking in Brownsville, just next to the Mexican border on Texas’ southern tip, the president addressed the fires – which, as of Friday, have burned over a million acres of land and killed two people.
Biden said: “I've flown over a lot of these wildfires since I've been president… Flown over more land burned to the ground.
“All the vegetation gone – more than the entire state of Maryland in square footage.”
Biden addressed the fires in his speech, which so far have killed two people
Reuters
The President highlighted the link between the fires and climate change – a core tenet of his administration’s policy – but launched into a charged attack on deniers.
Biden said: “The idea there's no such thing as climate change. I love that, man… I love some of my Neanderthal friends who still think there's no climate change.”
In 2023, Biden took aim at Republicans following the release of the National Climate Assessment, saying: “Anyone who willfully denies the impact of climate change is condemning the American people to a very dangerous future.
“Impacts are only going to get worse, more frequent, more ferocious and more costly – none of this is inevitable.”
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Biden criticised potential 2024 challenger Donald Trump, who also visited border towns this week
ReutersThis isn’t the first time Biden has compared his opponents to ancient apes – in 2021, he referred to Texas and Mississippi’s relaxation of mask restrictions as “Neanderthal thinking”.
At the time, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves hit back, and said: “Mississippians don’t need handlers… I just think we should trust Americans, not insult them.”
Biden’s border-town appearance this week wasn’t just a chance for the president to speak out on climate change – he also turned his attention to immigration, and a bipartisan border bill which Congress failed to vote through last month.
He said: “This bill was on its way to being passed… Then it was derailed by rank-and-file politics – the US needs to reconsider this bill and those senators who oppose it need to set politics aside and pass it on the merits.
“The majority of Republicans and Democrats in both houses support this legislation until someone came along and said ‘Don’t do that. It'll benefit the incumbent’… That's a hell of a way to do business in America for such a serious problem.”
That someone? Former president and potential 2024 election challenger Donald Trump, who also visited Texas yesterday, delivering scathing remarks on what he said was “Biden migrant crime”.
Biden – who trails Trump in approval ratings – praised border officials for their work, but he called on lawmakers to “show a little spine” in supplying resources “in order to secure our border”.
The president said: “Folks, it’s time to act – it’s long past time to act.”