by Conservative critics of Kamala Harris are once again reeling with alleged outrage after the vice president’s remark about the effects of the climate crisis.
The latest right-wing voices erupted after Ms Harris interviewed the actress Priyanka Chopra, who during a debate questioned how the Biden administration was responding to the real issue of poorer countries and communities bearing the brunt of its worst effects. climate crisis.
Ms. Harris responded to the actress with a remark that some conservatives specifically referred to Hurricane Ian relief. A related, if still incorrect, hypothesis given the disaster continues to unfold in Florida and other states.
The issue is a personal one for Ms Chopra, who has two homes in India and has seen neighboring Pakistan ravaged in the past month by record-breaking floods that have killed hundreds of people and displaced thousands more.
The floods have been blamed at least in part by experts on the increasing rate of melting of glaciers, an obvious symptom of climate change, and have sparked a debate about how poorer countries such as Pakistan produce far lower rates of global emissions than richer nations. they often bear most of the problems caused by the emissions of wealthier nations.
“It’s our lowest-income communities and our communities of color that are most affected by these extreme conditions,” Ms. Harris says in the video. “We have to approach it in a way that’s about equity-based resourcing, understanding that we’re fighting for equality, but we also have to fight for equality.”
Despite this context, many on the right complained loudly and wrongly that Ms. Harris suggested that the Biden administration should distribute more resources to communities in Florida with larger populations of various minority demographics, including Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“Hurricanes don’t target people based on the color of their skin,” Ms Green said in an absurd tweet suggesting the vice president planned to “discriminate” against white people through aid leaflets.
“Is your husband’s life worth less? [because] is he white?’ asked.
There were plenty of other conservatives who jumped on the same bandwagon, clearly eager to call the nation’s first black vice president a “racist.”
“Now that’s racism,” complained Vernon Jones, a black Republican running for office in Georgia.
A spokeswoman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis went so far as to claim that the vice president had caused a “panic” because of her words and not just because many conservatives seemed to have engaged in an effort to change the meaning. from what he said.
“FEMA Individual Assistance is already available to all Floridians affected by Hurricane Ian, regardless of race or background,” said Christina Pushaw.
Conservative news networks were willing to join the disinformation campaign as well.
An article published last week on Fox News incorrectly claimed in the headline that “Vice President Kamala Harris Says Hurricane Recovery Should Consider ‘Net Capital,'” while later publishing another article with the headline: ” Vice President Kamala Harris dodges question about dispersing Hurricane Ian relief based on ‘equity’. Newsmax published similar articles on the controversy.
Ms. Harris, for her part, ignored a question shouted by a Fox News reporter about the issue when she arrived at the Congressional Black Caucuses gala on Monday night in Washington.
