Hill Heat

On Thursday, the Democratic National Committee’s resolutions committee voted down a resolution that would have established a climate debate for the presidential candidates, reflecting the wishes of frontrunner Joe Biden. However, the committee did open the door to candidates participating in a non-DNC-sanctioned climate debate, a significant victory for the youth activists leading the call. On Saturday, the full DNC voted that plan down 222 to 137, closing the door to any presidential climate debate.

DNC chair Tom Perez’s resolution to block a DNC climate debate passed the committee in an 17 to 8 vote.

At the DNC meeting in California, Biden spokesperson and DNC member Symone Sanders said it would be “dangerous” to hold a climate debate.

Mercury News’s Casey Tolan reported that Symone Sanders said a climate debate “would fundamentally change the game” of the established debate rules and would be “dangerous territory in the middle of a Democratic primary process.”

In June, Biden had expressed unequivocal support for a debate exclusively on climate.

DNC members opposed to holding a climate debate include corporate lobbyist and CNN commentator Maria Cardona of the Dewey Square Group, who said “It will take away time from their knocking on doors, going to all of your states to be able to campaign.”

With the August 22nd meeting of the Democratic National Committee fast approaching, DNC chair Tom Perez has filed a resolution to block the establishment of a Democratic presidential debate focused on climate change. Spurred by youth climate activists, nearly every candidate supports such a debate.

The Perez resolution argues that the climate town-hall forums scheduled by CNN and MSNBC for September, in which candidates would be interviewed separately, are a sufficient substitute for a debate.

The resolution concludes:

WHEREAS, Democratic candidates for President of the United States are demonstrating their commitment to tackling the issue of climate change, having already scheduled two televised forums on CNN and MSNBC to discuss the issue, and debating the issue during each of the DNC-sanctioned presidential primary debates;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT, Democrats will address the serious threat of climate change through bold and inclusive solutions that grow the clean energy economy and expand America’s middle class.

Perez was backed by Barack Obama to block environmental-justice leader Keith Ellison from becoming chair.

The full text of the resolution is below:

Today, Joe Biden [became](https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/breaking-biden-endorses-climate-debate-fossil-fuel-phaseout-at-iowa-campaign-stop/) the 15th [Democratic candidate for president to call for a climate debate](http://www.hillheat.com/articles/2019/06/10/spurred-by-youth-climate-activists-over-a-dozen-democratic-candidates-call-for-climate-debate-nixed-by-dnc), making a mockery of Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez’s [claim](https://medium.com/@TomPerezforDNC/on-debates-3f6956696e7e) such a debate would be “at the request of one candidate.”

Perez was evidently singling out Jay Inslee, who has made climate action a centerpiece of his campaign.

In fact, the demand for a presidential debate focused on climate began with the youth climate activist groups U.S. Youth Climate Strike and Sunrise Movement. Inslee was the first candidate to support their campaign, though over a dozen fellow candidates soon followed suit.

Biden joined the calls for a climate debate in a conversation with a climate activist following a rally today in Ottumwa, Iowa, Greenpeace reports.

Biden is the ninth of the 13 candidates who have fully qualified for the DNC debates to endorse a climate debate.

In a Medium post, Perez—handpicked as chair by Barack Obama to thwart the candidacy of Keith Ellison—pushed back on the growing calls for a climate debate.

“If we change our guidelines at the request of one candidate who has made climate change their campaign’s signature issue, how do we say no to the numerous other requests we’ve had?”

Perez has not indicated specifically what other existential issue a majority of the Democratic candidates for president, spurred by activists, have requested to debate.

• Jay Inslee April 17 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter]
• Kirsten Gillibrand April 17 [Daily Beast]
• Mike Gravel April 19 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter]
• Julián Castro April 22 [Julian Castro, Twitter]
• Tim Ryan April 22 [Tim Ryan, Twitter]
• Andrew Yang May 6 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter]
• Beto O’Rourke May 6 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter]
• Bernie Sanders May 6 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter] (promoted by Sanders on May 7)
• Elizabeth Warren May 20 [Elizabeth Warren, Twitter]
• Amy Klobuchar May 23 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter]
• Michael Bennet May 29 [Politico]
• John Delaney June 4 [John Delaney]
• Tulsi Gabbard June 6 [Gabbard press assistant Cullen Tiernan, Twitter]
• Seth Moulton June 7 [Seth Moulton, Twitter]
• Joe Biden June 11 [Greenpeace, YouTube]

Transcript of Biden exchange:

Spurred by teen-aged climate activists, a majority of the Democratic candidates for president have called on the Democratic National Committee to hold a debate focused on climate change.

This week, DNC chair Tom Perez announced no such debate would happen, tweeting that the DNC “will not be holding entire debates on a single issue area – we want to make sure voters have the ability to hear from candidates on all the issues.”

The U.S. Youth Climate Strike, led by a group of teenagers inspired by 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg, has been bird-dogging candidates since April 2019. With the support of MoveOn, the group launched an online petition to the DNC that now has nearly 55,000 signatures. A broad coalition of environmentalist and progressive groups followed suit with a joint petition that now has over 191,000 signatures. A DailyKos petition has an additional 17,000 signatures and counting.

Below is a sourced listing of the 14 Democratic candidates for president who have announced their support for a climate debate and when they did so. Not only is that a majority of the 23 major candidates running for president, the list includes eight of the 14 candidates who have passed the DNC threshold to qualify for their debates (bold below).

Most of the announcements were in response to an in-person request from a U.S. Youth Climate Strike activist, though some were in response to reporter questions.

• Jay Inslee April 17 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter]
• Kirsten Gillibrand April 17 [Daily Beast]
• Mike Gravel April 19 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter]
• Julián Castro April 22 [Julian Castro, Twitter]
• Tim Ryan April 22 [Tim Ryan, Twitter]
• Andrew Yang May 6 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter]
• Beto O’Rourke May 6 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter]
• Bernie Sanders May 6 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter] (promoted by Sanders on May 7)
• Elizabeth Warren May 20 [Elizabeth Warren, Twitter]
• Amy Klobuchar May 23 [U.S. Youth Climate Strike, Twitter]
• Michael Bennet May 29 [Politico]
• John Delaney June 4 [John Delaney]
• Tulsi Gabbard June 6 [Gabbard press assistant Cullen Tiernan, Twitter]
• Seth Moulton June 7 [Seth Moulton, Twitter]

In their announcement of support for a climate debate, Gabbard and Moulton campaigns called for another debate to focus on national security.

Unlike the 2012 and 2016 elections, most of the Democratic candidates have climate change a central theme of their campaigns, outlining competing visions for transforming the United States toward sustainability and climate justice.

Strangely, DNC spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa argued the DNC couldn’t host a climate debate because it would favor Jay Inslee, who has made climate the central theme of his presidential campaign. “Once we start allowing one candidate to dictate what the debate is about, we have to say ‘yes’ to all of them on their core issue,” Hinojosa told HuffPost. “Otherwise people would say we are benefiting one candidate. And if we were to have issue-area debates, how do you pick 12 issue areas?”

On Sunday, Perez gave an even more incoherent excuse for refusing to hold a climate debate, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Perez told activists at an event in Orlando: “It’s just not practical. And as someone who worked for Barack Obama, the most remarkable thing about him was his tenacity to multitask, and a president must be able to multitask.”

Perez seems to be confused about the cross-cutting implications of climate change despite his role as the head of the Democratic Party. The 2016 Democratic platform claimed that “Democrats believe that climate change poses a real and urgent threat to our economy, our national security, and our children’s health and futures, and that Americans deserve the jobs and security that come from becoming the clean energy superpower of the 21st century,” and that “Democrats recognize the catastrophic consequences facing our country, our planet, and civilization.”

Update 6/13 Updated to reflect that Kirsten Gillibrand had passed both criteria (polling and contributors) for the debates on Monday.