I have to admit, Saturday morning, I was completely stunned by the news that Special Envoy John Kerry would be leaving the Biden administration.
It was later revealed that Kerry will now be joining Joe Biden’s campaign staff to try to save his re-election bid.
Talking Points…
- Kerry out as Climate Special Envoy
- Kerry to try to rescue Biden’s campaign
- Analysis
As far as Joe Biden is concerned, John Kerry is the bee’s knees in terms of climate change. He has given Kerry a wide berth throughout the first term and treated every word that Kerry has said as gospel regarding the climate.
So, it was a bit surprising to see Kerry announce that he was stepping down. Even though it was later revealed that Kerry would be joining Biden’s campaign team, this was a big move to eliminate Kerry from the picture regarding climate change.
But let’s face facts: his time as climate envoy has been bumpy at best. Kerry has used private planes to jet all over the world. Additionally, he has been willing to overlook some fairly significant human rights violations by countries in the name of climate change.
Kerry’s transition out of the office will take a minute, so it was not shocking that no replacement has been named as of yet. What was a bit of a surprise is that Kerry is now going to transition over to Biden’s campaign team.
According to an Axios report, Kerry will be working the climate change angle for Biden’s campaign in an effort to continue to get the climate change message out to voters.
This is pure speculation on my part, but I am guessing that Kerry’s departure also has something to do with the fact that Republicans have been trying to lock in the numbers for Kerry’s travel, especially to these global climate change summits, which produce about as much carbon as a small city does in an entire year.
Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) has been among those leading the charge to call out Kerry for his hypocritical jet travel while demanding Americans dial back their carbon output. She stated:
“The gas is always greener when you’re burning fossil fuels in the name of saving the planet.
“According to these Biden bureaucrats’ own actions emitting greenhouse gases while jetting across the world, American-made fossil fuels are not the enemy. The double standard is clear, and Americans have had enough of this hot air.”
One of the key criticisms of Joe Biden’s campaign is that his message is not resonating with voters, so I would guess that Kerry hitting the road to help get this message out is a big part of solving that problem.
It will be interesting to see how the GOP reacts to Kerry’s leaving as climate envoy, especially if he goes back to his habit of using private planes to jet all over the country to spread Biden’s climate message. If he does that, this entire little charade of his could backfire on Biden during the general election.
