Trump this week claimed that the planet has “actually gotten a little bit cooler lately.” Vance, meanwhile, prefaced an answer related to the link between carbon emissions and climate change during Tuesday’s vice presidential debate with, “Let’s just say that’s true.”
The statements, in the wake of the extreme weather disaster, highlight the gulf between the parties on the issue as the November election approaches and the storm’s impact looms particularly large in the potentially key swing states of Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.
Climate change “is a highly motivating factor for young voters in this election,” said North Carolina Democratic Strategist Morgan Jackson, “and when you see folks like Donald Trump and JD Vance, it is one of the reasons that I think young voters are going to be more motivated to turn out, because the top issue they care about and they worry about Republicans … call a hoax.”
Florida-based Republican strategist Ford O’Connell, however, said that even in hard-hit states, he does not believe that climate change will be a top issue in the presidential race.
“This is just not a top 10 issue this cycle,” O’Connell said. “What people in North Carolina and Virginia are pissed off about is the price of groceries and the price of gas.”
Read more in a full story tomorrow at TheHill.com.
