Joe Biden Claps Back at AOC Over Climate Change Criticism: ‘Tell Her to… Look at My Record’

Former Vice President and current Democratic presidential primary frontrunner Joe Biden responded to criticism from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by saying that the congresswoman should “look at my record,” and claimed that “nobody has been more consistent about taking on the environment and a green revolution than I have.”

During a visit to the Works Cafe in Concord, NH, Biden was asked about AOC’s comments bemoaning a “middle of the road” approach to climate change, which was an apparent shot at Biden.

“I’ve never been middle of the road on the environment,” Biden told reporters at the cafe, adding “tell her to check, you know, the statement that I made and look at my record.”

“She’ll find that nobody has been more consistent about taking on the environment and a green revolution than I have,” Biden said. “And so, look, anyway, so, I don’t think she’s talking about me.”

“This idea that I haven’t done anything, take a look at the record,” Biden added. “That’s what I’d say. I’m sure she will get time to look at it.”

AOC’s comments were a reaction to a quote from one of his campaign advisers, not Biden himself. Heather Zichal, who is “part of a team advising Biden on climate change,” told Reuters that ““What we learned from the Obama administration is unless we find middle ground on these issues, we risk not having any policies.”

That quote became the headline to which AOC and Bernie Sanders reacted, but Zichal has since said that Reuters “got it wrong”:

I expect as president @JoeBiden would enact a bold policy to tackle climate change in a meaningful and lasting way. Reuters got it wrong. Any suggestion that it wouldn’t is in direct contradiction to his long record of understanding climate change as an existential threat.

— Heather Renee Zichal (@hrzichal) May 10, 2019

Biden has not endorsed the Green New Deal, but does have a long record of supporting action on climate change that goes back more than 30 years, including supporting Obama-era efforts like the Paris Climate Agreement and a host of other environmental policies.

Watch the clip above, via CNN.