Appearing on November 29's Fox News Sunday, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina slammed President Barack Obama and his allies as “delusional” for continually pushing the notion that climate change is a chief national security threat for the United States and the world at-large.
Fiorina was asked about the issue by host Chris Wallace in context of this upcoming week’s United Nations climate change summit in Paris and the argument that addressing climate change makes the world safer and rebukes Islamic terrorists.
The GOP candidate immediately pounced on the President, twice declaring that it is “delusional” for the left and specifically the President and Hillary Clinton for arguing “that climate change is our near-term most severe security threat” when, in reality, “[i]t is ISIS, period, followed closely by Iran and perhaps Russia.”
Fiorina further explained that “President Obama continues to think that somehow our behavior causes terrorism, so he says the climate change summit is a powerful rebuke” when “it's not” because:
The terrorists don't care that we're gathering in Paris other than it provides a target, just as he said ‘well, Republicans are giving terrorists a recruiting tool and we don't think refugees should be allowed in the country if we cannot properly vet them.’ President Obama is delusional about the threat, which is apparently he won't do anything about it.
Wallace then challenged her on whether or not the climate talks themselves are still worthwhile and Fiorina shot back:
If you read the fine print of the science, what the scientists tell us, all those scientist who sea rates and manmade, they say a single nation acting alone will make no difference at all, that it will take a concerted global effort over 30 years, costing trillions of dollars. I think the likelihood is near zero, so no, I do not think it’s particularly productive.
Instead of harping on global warming, Fiorina offered some suggestions of her own for the global community to focus on that would have a more lasting impact:
I think it would be far more productive if President Obama indeed was there leading an international coalition to stop human trafficking or for humanitarian relief for the refugees or and international coalition to defeat ISIS. All those would be more useful than time in Paris spent talking about climate change.
The relevant portion of the transcript from November 29's Fox News Sunday can be found below.
Fox News Sunday
November 29, 2015
9:06 a.m. EasternCHRIS WALLACE: Your reaction to the summit and to the contention by some in the Obama administration that climate change is, if not the biggest, certainly the most immediate threat to our national security?
CARLY FIORINA: Well, that's delusional. It is delusional for President Obama and Hillary Clinton and anyone else to say that climate change is our near-term most severe security threat. It is ISIS, period, followed closely by Iran and perhaps Russia. President Obama continues to think that somehow our behavior causes terrorism, so he says the climate change summit is a powerful rebuke. No, it's not. The terrorists don't care that we're gathering in Paris other than it provides a target, just as he said ‘well, Republicans are giving terrorists a recruiting tool and we don't think refugees should be allowed in the country if we cannot properly vet them.’ President Obama is delusional about the threat, which is apparently he won't do anything about it.
WALLACE: Do you think it's worthwhile to go to Paris — to go to this international summit and try to work out emissions limits?
FIORINA: If you read the fine print of the science, what the scientists tell us, all those scientist who sea rates and manmade, they say a single nation acting alone will make no difference at all, that it will take a concerted global effort over 30 years, costing trillions of dollars. I think the likelihood is near zero, so no, I do not think it’s particularly productive. I think it would be far more productive if President Obama indeed was there leading an international coalition to stop human trafficking or for humanitarian relief for the refugees or and international coalition to defeat ISIS. All those would be more useful than time in Paris spent talking about climate change.
