Buttigieg blames Trump and congressional ‘enablers’ for inaction on climate change

Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday blamed President Trump and “enablers” in Congress for the nation’s inaction on climate change.

“It’s not just him. It’s all of the enablers in the congressional GOP,” Buttigieg said at CNN’s climate town hall.

{mosads}“I mean, Congress right now it’s like a room full of doctors arguing about what to do over a cancer patient. And half of them are arguing over whether medication or surgery is the best approach. And the other half is saying cancer doesn’t exist,” he said.

Buttigieg’s comments came in response to a viewer question about what he would ask Trump during a climate debate. The South Bend, Ind., mayor said he didn’t know what he could ask that would get through to Trump.

“I can’t think of anything I could ask him other than, ‘Would you please step aside and allow us to do something about this issue because you’re clearly not ready to lead,’ ” he said.

Earlier in the night Buttigieg, who released his own climate proposal Wednesday morning, called for unity to deal with climate change, comparing the effort needed to tackle the crisis to that undertaken to win World War II. 

“We have to actually unify the country around this project. And that means bringing people to the table who haven’t felt that they’ve been part of the process. I mean, this is the hardest thing we will have done certainly in my lifetime,” he said. “This is on par with winning World War II, perhaps even more challenging than that.”