Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Tuesday defended his record on environmental issues, after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York had implicitly rebuked him a day earlier.
“You never heard me say ’middle of the road.’ I’ve never been middle-of-the-road on the environment,” Mr. Biden said at a campaign stop in New Hampshire.
“Tell her to check the statements that I made and look at my record. She’ll find that nobody [has] been more consistent about taking on the environment and a green revolution than I have,” he said.
At an event Monday evening, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a leading figure on the left, said she couldn’t abide politicians who refused to act in the past coming back to advocate a “middle of the road” approach on environmental issues.
A Reuters report last week suggested Mr. Biden was aiming for a “middle ground” on the issue, though the former vice president has been trying to clean things up since then.
He said he thinks his to-be-released plan on the environment will be enough for liberals who are calling for the far-reaching “Green New Deal” pushed by Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and others to cut carbon emissions.
SEE ALSO: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivers implicit rebuke to Joe Biden on climate change
“It’s a long campaign, and everybody should just calm down a little bit,” he said. “There’s much more to do. We do need a green revolution.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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