White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy is suggesting that if people believe reducing red meat intake is “the entire solution to climate change” then “we’re all in a lotta trouble.”
McCarthy was asked during an Axios interview with Mike Allen about the “completely made-up notion” that President Joe Biden was “coming for your hamburgers.”
Republicans pushed “baseless claims,” as The Washington Post writes, that Biden “would take hamburgers and steaks off the menu as part of his new plan to combat climate change.” However, the president’s plan “doesn’t include any call to limit meat-eating,” the Post reports.
“If you have to make up stuff like that, you must have a very losing argument, number one,” McCarthy responded.
She added, “And secondly, man, if people think that switching your hamburger or going down to less meat is the entire solution to climate change, we’re all in a lotta trouble.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) previously said that the claims about Biden planning to ban red meat “a fabrication.” The USDA added, “There is no such effort or policy that exists by this Administration. It’s not a part of the climate plan nor the emissions targets. It is not real.”
Additionally, on “Axios on HBO,” McCarthy said, “Now is not the time to sit them down and say: ‘Let’s talk about climate. How can you sacrifice?’ … [I]t’s never going to be a winning strategy. Right now, it’s ridiculous.”