Al Gore endorses Biden for president

Former Vice President Al Gore (D) endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden’s (D) presidential candidacy on Wednesday during a climate change-focused livestream discussion on Earth Day. 

“We need policy changes, and that means we need to change some of the policymakers, particularly the one in the White House,” Gore said. 

He added that he would tell an undecided voter, “This is the most consequential choice in a presidential election that we’ve ever had in American history. Donald Trump is the face of climate denial globally. He is lifting the constraints on polluters.” 

Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee following Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) recent exit from the nomination contest. 

Gore said later that people should vote for Biden to “put us on the road to solving the climate crisis and creating a brighter future.”

Gore’s endorsement comes on the same day that Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D), whose 2020 presidential campaign was largely centered on environmental issues, also threw his support behind Biden. 

Some Sanders-aligned environmental advocates have called for Biden to take on bolder climate plans. The presidential candidate has expressed willingness to do so, saying in a statement this week that “in the months ahead, expanding this plan will be one of my key objectives. ”

Gore, who served as Bill Clinton’s vice president, ran for president himself in 2000. He narrowly lost to former President George W. Bush. 

Since then, Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to draw attention to climate change.

–Updated at 3:43 p.m.