Nearly two dozen people protesting Biden administration policies on climate change and the Israel-Hamas war were arrested Monday outside the president’s campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Del., according to protest group Sunrise Movement.
About 100 demonstrators blockaded the headquarters, holding signs demanding action on climate change and for President Biden to back a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. Wilmington police arrested 20 protesters, Sunrise said.
“Climate change is at our doorstep. Our homes are flooding, we’re breathing in toxic air, Black people like me are dying while the President expands oil and gas production to record levels,” Sunrise Campaign Director Kidus Girma said in a statement. “Then President Biden goes around and claims he’s a climate president and wants our votes? That’s bullshit.”
The protesters wore shirts demanding Biden “declare a climate emergency” and held signs reading “lead or lose” and “fund climate not genocide.”
Monday marks the first time Sunrise has protested the Biden campaign headquarters after picketing GOP presidential campaign events across the country for months. Last month, the group interrupted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) Fox News town hall.
Climate change has been a marquee issue for the Biden administration, but progressives have hit the president for not going far enough. Biden and Vice President Harris have held up the climate provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as monumental investments to combat climate change.
Biden characterized the IRA as “taking the most aggressive action ever on climate energy — ever.” Sunrise Movement is among groups that have demanded further action.
“It’s not enough now for the Democratic Party to wipe their hands and say, ‘IRA solved it all.’ We’re still in a crisis. This is still an emergency,” Sunrise electoral director Michele Weindling told The Hill in August.