Ocasio-Cortez Asks Kerry If US Will Have ‘Blood’ On Its Hands If It Doesn’t Address Climate Change

The freshman congresswoman first asked former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel if “neglecting to address” the threats posed by global warming could lead to the “loss of American life.”

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Hagel’s answer in the affirmative prompted another question from Ocasio-Cortez.

“And do you think that denial or even delaying in that action could cost us American lives?” she said, to which Hagel again replied, “yes.”

Ocasi0-Cortez then moved on to Kerry, asking the former presidential candidate if he thought “that appointing a federal panel that questions 26 years of established climate science (could) be responsible for the loss of American life.”

“It could be,” Kerry said.

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“So I think what we have laid out here is a very clear moral problem and in terms of leadership, if we fail to act or even if we delay in acting, we will have blood on our hands?” Ocasio-Cortez said in response. “I don’t know if you’re allowed to agree with that Secretary Kerry or Secretary Hagel, but would you agree with that assessment?”

Kerry said doing “nothing” would make the U.S. “complicit in our acts of omission and commission of what we’re doing to choose for our energy, etc.”

“And we’re going to contribute to people dying, we’re going to contribute to trillions of dollars of damage to property and we will change the face of life on this planet,” he added.

At one point during the hearing, Kerry praised the progressive lawmaker climate change efforts, saying she had “in fact offered more leadership in one day or in one week than President Trump has in his lifetime on this.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s advocacy for the Green New Deal has been fierce, becoming one of the issues most closely associated with the 29-year-old Bronx native. Ocasio-Cortez has expended significant political energy attempting to garner support and public sympathy for the proposal, which recently failed to pass the Senate in a 57-o vote.

Since introducing the Green New Deal shortly after taking office, Ocasio-Cortez has been at the center of the climate change debate. While her proposal was quickly embraced by some of the leading Democratic presidential candidates, critics claim the plan does little to actually address climate change, arguing it is expensive and unrealistic.

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