CNN City Hall on Climate: Takeaway and what it means for 2020



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Sometimes the candidates waged a bitter war to show Liberal activists that their plan was the most daring – and even the most expensive. But with one eye on November 2020, others have warned of the risk of throwing the economy out the window.

The candidates, who all adhere to the science of climate change, have offered voters an alternative to a president who views climate change as a "hoax" and slams their "dreams and windmills".

However, Donald Trump's mocking tweets and the GOP's quick attacks during the event reflected the risks run by the Democrats: if the price to go into entering the presidential race is ambitious, it's not the only way to go. has not yet been proven that he was astute as an electoral strategy.

Here's how it all went:

Julián Castro

What he said:

The former secretary of the HUD, Julián Castro, set the tone by starting. He promised that his first executive order as president would be to join the Paris agreement. He said his $ 10,000-billion climate plan would include a carbon tax, stopping fossil fuel exploration and fracking on federal lands, as well as the development of fossil fuels. wind, solar and other renewable energies.

"We do not need climatologists to say what we see with our own eyes," Castro said, stressing the immediacy of the crisis.

The delivery:

Castro presented his maturing political skills. He took advantage of the climate crisis to explain other fundamental themes of his campaign – for example, justice for minorities, he said, was often the first to suffer from environmental disasters. He compared his executive experience with his rivals. And he said the climate crisis was exacerbated by big sums in politics and corrupt corporations – the bogeyman of the race for the Democratic presidency.

Andrew Yang

What he said:

No surprise here: the technological entrepreneur walked at the pace of a different drum.

He pushed his "Freedom Dividend" plan to give Americans a universal basic income, saying that if you "get out of someone's throat", he is free to think about threats such as climate change. Yang talked about his $ 5 trillion emissions reduction plan, which includes funds for unproven and risky approaches such as geo-engineering, space mirrors and cloud seeding.

The delivery:

If you like Yang, you are looking for something completely different. And he delivered. He was out of the wall and gave clear answers. Yang showed why conventional politicians say that he should not be in the running but why a slice of young voters is attracted to his innovative brain. Of course, he was the oddest candidate on stage. But do not forget that he usually dominates four of the leading contenders for mayor. If the world needs to think outside the box to save itself, Yang can play a role.

Kamala Harris:

What she said:

The California senator made the first bold intervention of the night, promising to abolish the obstruction of the Senate if the Republicans refused to cooperate to pass a Green New Deal. And in anticipation of another controversial executive warrant, Harris pledged to give his attorney's instinct to tell the Justice Department to attack oil and gas companies. She warned that while Trump tweeted with one hand, he was getting rid of the environmental regulations of the other.

The delivery:

Harris must impose himself on the front row of Democrats. She needs the Liberals to warm up with her and the Americans to see her as a president. She therefore demonstrated boldness, determination and empathy on the scale of the Commander-in-Chief to a man who lost his home as a result of a forest fire. She exploded in Trump to show him that she could attack him.

"Leaders need to lead – I'm ready when I get elected," Harris said.

Supporters will think that his joie de vivre has come out of the screen. A critic might wonder how a President Harris could live up to her big promises.

Amy Klobuchar

What she said:

The senator from Minnesota delivered a dose of pragmatism and political reality. His plan to put the United States on zero emissions track by 2050 includes more traditional approaches, such as setting a price on carbon. Klobuchar also lamented the deprivation of minors whose industry has been overwhelmed by the time and committed to investing to protect the victims of an energy revolution.

While strongly supporting renewable energies, pledging significant overall action on the part of the executive and pledging to reverse Trump's regulatory purge, she said Democrats must be honest: 39, carbon energy would not disappear overnight.

The delivery:

Klobuchar is a centrist who says he can overthrow Trump in the Midwest. She warned the Democrats that if they ignored workers injured by ambitious climate policies, "it will be very difficult to bring with them the people we need to win in the center of the country."

"I would need to see who we have in Congress and how far we can go," said Klobuchar, implicitly rejecting a Harris-style plan to blow up the traditions of the Senate if he did not play to the balloon.

The crucial question for Klobuchar on Wednesday was the same as the one that weighed on his campaign: do liberal primary voters want a measured and moderate candidate?

Joe Biden

What he said:

The former vice president promised to lead the world, not just America, in the fight against climate change, drawing on his decades of experience on the world stage .

True to his campaign theme, namely that he can oust Trump and restore American values ​​and leadership, Biden said it was time to trust "science foremost," and defended his former boss, Barack Obama, who chose to save the economy and heal himself. restructuring with the political capital that was drained when he wanted to fight climate change. Biden insisted that his projects were "sufficiently aggressive" compared to those of other candidates.

The delivery:

This was Biden's campaign in the microcosm. He passionately defended the fact that he was the only one with leadership skills and the global network to be president and asserted that he had been fighting Liberal causes for decades. But his half-century of politics has provoked a careful review of his record. He rejected the idea that his age and his settlement status meant that he was siding with corporations at the expense of the helpless and away from modern democrats.

"The plans are great." Executing their plans is a very different thing, "said Biden, obviously trying to touch the idealism of some of his rivals. "You have yet to bring the rest of the world in. I know almost every one of these world leaders."

But his appearance also underlines that his candidacy is threatened – along with the complications of a long political past and his age – against which he simply can not do anything.

Bernie Sanders

What he said:

The Vermont Senator has a plan bigger and more expensive than anyone. And he is proud of it.

"We are fighting for the survival of planet Earth, our only planet, how is it not a major priority?" Sanders asked.

Sanders did not regret the cost of his $ 16 trillion climate change plan, boasting that it was the most serious of all presidential candidates Of the history.

And he rejected the idea that he was too extreme to face Trump during a general election, posing as more rational than the current president: "Donald Trump thinks that the change climate is a hoax, I think it's dangerously wrong. "

The delivery:

The climate debate is a window into the delicate situation that Sanders faces in the 2020 elections. He alone pulled the Democratic Party's left wing in its 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton. Now he must continue to grow and be expensive to distinguish his radicalism from other candidates who have embraced his ideology. For example, in recent days he has developed a $ 81 billion plan to cancel outstanding medical debts.

Vermont's major spending plans only add to the question of whether its taxing strategy for the rich will actually fund its major government programs – not to mention its chances of legislating them.

But Sanders will do everything.

"I have a radical idea that a healthy congress of mind can walk and chew gum at the same time," he said.

Now it's a radical idea.

Elizabeth Warren

What she said:

Warren entered the scene for four hours in the town hall. But she gave the impression of being able to stay there all night.

The Massachusetts senator has launched a series of her now famous projects. She pledged not to do without carbon energy but also to wean America's nuclear fuels by 2035. She called Trump a "nightmare" on climate change. And she warned Democrats not to get caught up in small-scale debates about the environmental consequences of plastic straws, cheeseburgers and light bulbs.

"That's exactly what the fossil fuel industry is hoping we all talk about," Warren said.

The delivery:

Warren's high-energy mini-lectures gave insight into his ability to develop a detailed policy from a personal background of personal experience in order to make his plans consistent.

She answered a question about carbon taxes saying, "I think that's what my mom taught me, namely that you have to clean up your own mess."

Warren also skilfully placed the climate debate in the context of his overall campaign theme: purging politics of the corrosive influence of large sums of money.

She has pledged to attack "the corruption in Washington that keeps Washington at the service of the big fossil fuel companies."

Warren has an advantage over candidates like Biden and Sanders: she always comes to the Americans and lacks a political life that can be opposed to her. But her rising star means that she can look forward to a more difficult course on the part of her rivals, as of the next presidential debate on September 12th.

Pete Buttigieg

What he said:

The mayor of South Bend, in Indiana, said that tackling climate change could be "more difficult" than winning the Second World War. He warned that in 50 or 100 years, Trump would be remembered for failing to cope with the climate emergency.

"The president is busy drawing a Sharpie on a hurricane map.It is in a different reality than the rest of the population.We do not have the luxury of asking ourselves what it is like. Is a problem. "

Buttigieg, reflecting that his life in the heart of the country was taking a less partisan and confrontational approach than some of his rivals, emphasized the need to bring the nation together.

"We have to bring the country together around this project," Buttigieg said, claiming he was the best choice to lead such a mission.

The delivery:

Buttigieg may lack rising rhetoric, but he brings to politics the kind of historical sweep that many Democrats saw in their presidents John Kennedy and Obama.

Like Obama in 2008, he stands as an intellectual and unifying candidate able to mitigate the polarization of the country and reach areas of the electorate close to the others. candidates.

Seeking to show that he could build coalitions even with conservative voters from downtown, Buttigieg called on Americans to see global warming from a religious angle.

"You know, if you believe that God is watching the poison being cast in the air of creation, and that people are suffering from it, countries are in danger in low-lying areas, what do you think God thought?" Buttigieg asked.

Beto O 'Rourke

What he said:

The former Texas congressman has spoken out against a carbon tax – trusting a cap and trade program to force polluters to cut their emissions.

"It's the best way to send the pricing signal to make sure there is a legally binding limit," he said. In his home country, O 'Rourke said that when he was elected president, he would release federal funding to help people leave flood-prone areas, such as the frequently flooded areas of Houston. .

Like Biden, O 'Rourke is committed to bringing the United States back into a leadership role to ensure that the rest of the world also plays its role.

The delivery:

O & # 39; Rourke gave a passionate presentation, has his own projects and has engaged with the crowd. But it was not obvious that he stood out against rivals for the nomination, who are doing better in polls five months before the Iowa caucuses. O 'Rourke has never recovered the euphoria provoked during his tight race against Ted Cruz for a seat in the US Senate in Texas in 2018. But he has shown up to his Unusual franchise reputation by revealing that he had told his 8 year old son that their hometown, El Paso, would be "uninhabitable" and would not "support" human life with the climate on its trajectory current.

Cory Booker

What he said:

When the climate crisis began at 5 pm Hurricane Dorian was a Category 2 storm. Six and a half hours later, when New Jersey Senator Cory Booker arrived for his late arrival, he regained his place in the category. 3 and left for South Carolina.

Booker – just like the optimism that reigns in his campaign – warned that the world was threatened by global warming but had "a tremendous opportunity" to create jobs and fight environmental injustice. He blamed Republicans for being part of the "only political party on planet earth" to deny the science of global warming. But even here he was looking for a good side, suggesting that millennial Republicans were more enlightened on the issue.

The delivery:

If a few moments before midnight were victorious, Booker would have the nomination in hand. "We are at prime time – in Hawaii," he joked. Some analysts have wondered why Booker was not doing better in the race. His enthusiasm Wednesday proved that it's not for lack of trying. The senator created blue water between him and other candidates, including Warren, supporting the nuclear – highlighting his habit of not always following liberal orthodoxy.

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