Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Demings this week displayed an impressive, almost Clintonesque ability to fib, deflect and denounce in trying to distance herself from President Joe Biden’s disastrous agenda.
The Orlando Democrat, who is challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio this fall, gave an interview Monday with Bay News 9 in Tampa, during which she was asked about Rubio painting her as a proponent of the Green New Deal,. She was also asked if the Biden administration’s anti-Big Oil policies were feeding rising gas prices.
The Green New Deal is the anti-fossil fuel program proposed by left-wing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The measure promotes a massive overhaul of the nation’s social welfare as aggressively as it advocates for America to undertake a wholesale swap from fossil fuels to renewable energy
In her comments, Demings said the country needs to “tap into our own reserves,” decrease fuel exports, and hold Big Oil accountable for gouging consumers.
She then claimed Rubio was “struggling with his re-election,” and asserted his argument about her support for the Green New Deal was “completely false.”
“I do not support the Green New Deal,” Demings said. “I really wish my opponent would stop playing politics when Floridians are hurting, and let’s come together to help drive those costs down.”
However, in June 2020, Demings tweeted, “The benefits of a green climate plan include growing our economy with new jobs, fixing our broken transportation system, investing in new technologies, and cleaning up our air and water. There is no downside. Let’s get it done.”
She said that in support of a bill, entitled Climate Action Now Act, put forward by Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa.
The bill, if enacted, would have committed then-President Donald Trump to “develop a plan for the United States to meet its nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement” on climate change. “The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius,” the bill said.
Last April AOC and Democratic Sen. Ed Markey re-introduced the Green New Deal that they had first proposed in 2019. Their resolution declared, “It is the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal … to achieve the greenhouse gas and toxic emissions reductions needed to stay under 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming.”
Thus, the Green New Deal recognized the same goal as the Paris Agreement and Castor’s bill, which Demings endorsed and voted for.
Then, in September 2020, as her congressional website says, Demings cosponsored with Markey “a bold plan for economic renewal known as the Agenda to Transform, Heal, and Renew by Investing in a Vibrant Economy, or THRIVE Agenda.”
Announcing that, Demings said in a statement, “Today I’m proud to announce my support as an original cosponsor of the THRIVE Agenda. Let’s stop pretending that climate change, racial injustice, and economic inequality are outside of our control. The THRIVE Agenda puts people first by unequivocally stating that our health, climate, and human rights are intertwined.”
“Each of us, and our children, deserves a future where we can live in health and security, both economic and environmental,” she continued. “There is so much that we can accomplish when we see that our challenges—race, health, climate, jobs—are interconnected, not separate. By reinvesting in forgotten communities, protecting workers’ rights, and building a new, clean economy, we can transform our country and future.”
Other advocates of the THRIVE Agenda include a radical coalition called The Green New Deal Network.
On its website, the group notes, “The THRIVE Agenda is in line with the Green New Deal vision and is designed to meet the intersecting economic and climate crises of today. The transformative changes outlined in the THRIVE Agenda are not only achievable in our lifetimes, they are imperative to our future generations, and must be at the center of the governing agenda for economic recovery in 2021 and beyond.”
Thus, Demings may not have specifically attached her name to something called the Green New Deal, but she certainly supported the Deal’s positions, goals, and methods.
Which Rubio’s campaign pointed out in a response to her fib on Tuesday.
“Val Demings is so eager to hide her radical record from Florida voters that she’s resorted to lying,” Elizabeth Gregory, the Rubio campaign’s spokeswoman said in a statement.
“This deceitful backtracking won’t fool Floridians who see Demings for who she truly is: a Pelosi Puppet who wants to impose socialist policies like the Green New Deal on the American people.”
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