Climate change has taken a more prominent role in this year's election, with both presidential candidates weighing in during last week's final debate. For the sake of the environment, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) says the need for the Biden administration to take over the White House is more urgent than ever.
"Trump has basically set himself with the fossil fuel industry and the climate-denial establishment, and Joe Biden is listening to the scientists and talking about infrastructure, innovation and jobs and the kind of leadership that America can provide to get us through this," Whitehouse told Cheddar.
The senator, who is part of the Senate Democrats' Special Committee on the Climate Crisis, said the party is looking to pass a "very big, really meaningful climate bill" if Biden is elected and they win both houses of Congress. However, Whitehouse admits that the former vice president may face an uphill battle against the influence of "dark money" from the fossil fuel industry.
"The real problem is going to be those Republicans in the Senate who will try to use the filibuster and their position, even though they're in the minority, to block this," Whitehouse said. "They have basically become the political wing of the fossil fuel industry."
He worried that the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday might make it even more difficult for a Biden administration to find success with climate change efforts, claiming the Republican appointees on the Supreme Court have gone "out of their way to cover for the fossil fuel industry and do things that were completely unprecedented."
"The most unprecedented thing being to stop President Obama's clean power plan with an interlocutory stay, which the Supreme Court had never issued before," he noted, regarding the earlier Democratic administration.
According to the senator, the United States' position as a world leader has dipped under Trump, and in order to re-establish the nation's eminence, on climate especially, electing Biden will be key.
"You've got a really vital need for America to step up and assume a leadership role. Under President Trump, we've sniveled and shriveled away from this issue, and the world has been very confused by our lack of leadership," Whitehouse claimed.
For the Rhode Island senator, the climate crisis is a particularly important issue as The Ocean State's shores are threatened by rising sea levels.
"As you know, Rhode Island is a coastal state, so when you're talking about 6 feet, 10 feet of sea level rise, that really is a danger for so many Rhode Island communities and for our economy. So we've got to start preparing for what we can't avoid," he said.
The Trump administration has asked an appeals court to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors by Monday, before the central bank’s next vote on interest rates. Trump sought to fire Cook Aug. 25, but a federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the removal was illegal and reinstated her to the Fed’s board.
President Donald Trump's administration is appealing a ruling blocking him from immediately firing Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook as he seeks more control over the traditionally independent board. The notice of appeal was filed Wednesday, hours after U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb handed down the ruling. The White House insists the Republican president had the right to fire Cook over mortgage fraud allegations involving properties in Michigan and Georgia from before she joined the Fed. Cook's lawsuit denies the allegations and says the firing was unlawful. The case could soon reach the Supreme Court, which has allowed Trump to fire members of other independent agencies but suggested that power has limitations at the Fed.
Chief Justice John Roberts has let President Donald Trump remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of high-profile firings allowed for now by the Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Donald Trump has a message for critics who think turning the U.S. government into a major stockholder of Intel is a “socialist” move: More is coming.
Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook's lawyer says she'll sue President Donald Trump's administration to try to prevent him from firing her. Longtime Washington attorney Abbe Lowell said Tuesday that Trump “has no authority to remove” Cook. If Trump succeeds in removing Cook from the Fed's board of governors, it could erode the Fed’s political independence, which is considered critical to its ability to fight inflation because it enables the Fed to take unpopular steps like raising interest rates. The Republican president said Monday he was removing Cook because of allegations she committed mortgage fraud. Cook was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden in 2022 and says she won't step down.
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook late Wednesday said she wouldn’t leave her post after Trump on social media called on her to resign over an accusation from one his officials that she committed mortgage fraud.
