The Democratic Party routinely discusses the “climate crisis” it claims our country and our world are enduring. Many Democrats go so far as to say we must drastically reduce carbon emissions in order to avoid a “climate apocalypse.”
President Joe Biden has used similar lines of rhetoric. According to CNBC, Biden said last year that climate change was “the number one issue facing humanity.”
“Climate change is the existential threat to humanity,” he said in an October 2020 episode of Pod Save America. “Unchecked, it is going to actually bake this planet. This is not hyperbole. It’s real. And we have a moral obligation.”
Judging by Biden’s own actions on Friday, he does not think that obligation applies to himself.
As he took in the scenery in Rome, Biden was escorted around in a huge motorcade. According to the New York Post, it included 85 vehicles.
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Multiple Twitter users noticed the length of the motorcade, and some of them pointed out the hypocrisy of Biden’s actions.
Biden arriving at the Vatican. His motorcade is lonnnnnng. pic.twitter.com/fDzAH2ENsk
— Chico Harlan (@chicoharlan) October 29, 2021
#Decarbonize this https://t.co/W6FfXUHB92
— Souhail Karam (@Massinissa1973) October 29, 2021
America’s Marie Antoinette class is Washington’s elites – and that shows it.
— Matt Maggio (@MaggioMatt) October 29, 2021
To make the optics even worse, Biden is supposed to arrive in Glasgow, Scotland, on Sunday for a global “climate summit,” the Los Angeles Times reported. The outlet noted the summit aims to bring world leaders together to discuss how to “prevent the most catastrophic effects of global warming.”
For a president who goes around preaching to people about how we have a “moral obligation” to address climate change, cruising around in an 85-car motorcade is not a particularly good look.
The Post reported host countries are often responsible for providing protective detail to foreign leaders, so the White House may not have been in charge of the motorcade. Even so, the optics are rather damming for Biden.
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While in Rome, Biden also held a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican. The two reportedly discussed climate change, and Biden claimed the pope reassured him of his status in the Catholic Church.
“We just talked about the fact he was happy that I was a good Catholic and I should keep receiving Communion,” Biden said, according to The Associated Press.
Before the trip, Biden unveiled a $1.75 trillion plan for social and environmental spending, the Post reported. It includes $555 billion for “green-energy and anti-pollution spending.”
Should Biden practice what he preaches on climate change?
In introducing the plan, he also repeated the obligation argument, saying we have an “obligation to our children and to our grandchildren” to stop using fossil fuels. The Post noted it’s unclear whether any of the cars in his motorcade were electric, but most of them looked to be gas-powered.
If Biden truly wants to convince Americans to at least decrease their use of fossil fuels, he might want to start by looking straight into the mirror.