Round-Up: CNN Holds Town Hall on Climate Change with 2020 Democratic Candidates

Democrats talked about everything from banning straws to eating less red meat.

On Wednesday, September 4, CNN held a marathon town hall event with 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidates. Here's a round-up of some of the proposals. 

The Washington Examiner reports that Pete Buttigieg claimed fighting climate change could be harder than winning WWII:

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg said it will take a massive effort to stop the negative effects of climate change, so much so that it will take more of a nationwide effort than what was put out during World War II.

Buttigieg said while cities are leading the effort to become greener, the entire country must take steps to turn things around.

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"I mean, this is the hardest thing we will have done, certainly in my lifetime, as a country. This is on par with winning World War II, maybe more challenging than that," he added.

Per the Washington Free Beacon, Bernie Sanders promised higher taxes: 

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) said his climate change plan will result in "a lot of taxpayers out there who will be paying more in taxes" during CNN's climate town hall on Wednesday night.

Richard Katz, a restaurant industry worker, asked Sanders to be specific about where the money will be coming from to pay for his climate plan, prompting Sanders to mention how he is asked this question all the time.

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"[O]ur program will create up to 20 million good-paying jobs over the period of the 15 years and when we do that you're going to have a lot of taxpayers out there who will be paying more in taxes.

He also promised "some pain":

"We're going to have to change the nature of many of the things we're doing right now," Sanders began.

The Vermont lawmaker then pointed to products like cars with an "internal-combustion engine" and "old-fashioned" lightbulbs and how he would hope to encourage those who use them to move towards a more energy-efficient product.

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"There will be a transition and there will be some pain there," Sanders continued. "There's going to be change and we're going to have to ask people to understand that we've got to make those changes now even though they're going to be a little uncomfortable for the sake of future generations."

Sanders, a major advocate of the ultra-progressive Green New Deal, released his own climate change plan that has a price tag of $16 trillion.

The Washington Free Beacon also reported that Kamala Harriss proposed a ban on fracking: 

"There is no question I'm in favor of banning of fracking," Harris said. "Starting with what we can do on day one around public lands and then there has to be legislation, but yes. This is something I’ve taken on in California, I have a history of working on this issue."

Harris also urged Americans to eat less meat to combat climate change and said that she supports a ban on plastic straws.

According to The Daily Wire, Former Vice President Joe Biden praised the Green New Deal, saying it doesn't go too far:

Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden continued to move to the far-left on Wednesday night, saying that he likes socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-NY) $93 trillion "Green New Deal" and that the plan does not go too far.

Biden made the remarks during a CNN town hall event on climate change that was set up in a way that sensationalized the issue with hysterical claims and featured numerous false claims from candidates.

"Do you think it goes too far?" CNN's Anderson Cooper asked Biden about the Green New Deal. "Is it unrealistic promising too much?"

"No, no it's not," Biden responded.

Finally, watch Beto O'Rourke compare fighting climate change to fighting Nazi Germany in WWII: 

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