On Wednesday, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg weathered the slings and arrows of outrageous Republicans at a committee hearing. At one point, while discussing why his department needed more support in combating the issues presented by climate change, Buttigieg was forced to face off against Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a longtime climate change denier and the guy who supports a push for parts of Northern California to secede from California.
As the extent of LaMalfa’s understanding of the climate begins and ends with looking out of his window every morning, his intellectually undercooked climate denialism is very easily dismissed. But Buttigieg used LaMalfa’s ignorance against him in a subtle yet very effective way. During a tense exchange where LaMalfa obfuscated the task at hand by blathering about percentages of carbon in the atmosphere, Buttigieg bottom-lined him by saying, “What I can tell you is that climate change is real, and we gotta do something about it,” to which LaMalfa attempted to retort, “Yeah, this one’s called autumn, sir.”
Buttigieg responded, “I’m sorry?” This forced LaMalfa to repeat the same joke again … and then Buttigieg shook his head and said, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t make out what you said, sir.” And LaMalfa had to repeat his truly pathetic joke a third time. Then Buttigieg gave a light smile and dropped the hammer: “Yeah, that's the seasons changing, which, respectively, is not the same thing as the climate changing. And as somebody who is hoping to retire in the 2050s and who has kids who will be old enough to ask me as they're getting to their thirties, whether we did enough to deal with climate change or whether we just did what was convenient, I take that really seriously.”
It was the rhetorical equivalent of forcing someone to smack themself in their own face.
RELATED STORY: Republican climate science denier Doug LaMalfa cries crocodile tears over Dixie Fire
Read More