WATCH: Trump claims California fires are burning due to lack of management

Transcript for Trump claims California fires are burning due to lack of management

The forest fires in the west are raging now. They have burned millions of acres. They have displaced hundreds of thousands of people. When state officials there blamed the fires on climate change, Mr. President, you said, I don’t think the science knows. Over your four years, you have pulled the U.S. Out of the Paris climate accord. You have rolled back a number of Obama environmental records. What do you believe about the science of climate change and what will you do in the next four years to confront it? I want crystal clean water and air, I want beautiful, clean we have now the lowest carbon — if you look at our numbers right now, we are doing phenomenally. But I haven’t destroyed our businesses. Our businesses aren’t put out of commission. If you look at the Paris accord, it was a disaster from our standpoint. And people are actually very happy about what’s going on. Because our businesses are doing well. As far as the fires are concerned, you need forest management, in addition to everything else. The forest floors are loaded up with trees, dead trees that are years old and they’re like tinder and leaves and everything else. You drop a cigarette in there, the whole forest burns down. You’ve got to have forest management. What do you believe about the science of climate change, sir? I believe that we have to do everything we can to have immaculate air, water, and do whatever else we can that’s good. You know, we’re planting a billion trees. And it’s very exciting. You believe that human pollution, gas, greenhouse gas emissions contributes to the global warming of this planet? I think to an extent, yes. I think to an extent, yes. But I also think we have to do better management of our forests. Every year I get the call, California’s burning. California’s burning. If that was cleaned — if you had forest management, good forest management, you wouldn’t be getting those calls. You know, in Europe, they live, they have forest cities, they’re called forest cities. They maintain their forests. They manage their forests. I was with the head of a major country, it’s a forest city. He said, sir, we have trees that are far more, they ignite much easier than California, there shouldn’t be that problem. I spoke with the governor about it. I’m getting along very well with the governor. I said, at some point, you can’t every year have hundreds of thousands of acres of land just burn to the ground. That’s burning down because of a lack of management. Sir, if you believe in the science of climate change, why have you rolled back the Obama clean power plan which limited carbon emissions in power plants, why have you relaxed — Because it was driving energy prices through the sky. Why have you relaxed fuel economy standards that are going to create more pollution from cars and trucks? Well, not really, because what’s happening is, the car is much less expense I, a much safer car and you’re talking about a tiny difference. And what would happen, because of the cost of the car, you would have at least double and triple the number of cars per chased. We have the old slugs out there that are 10, 12 years old. If you did that, the car would be safer, it would be much cheaper by $3,500. In California, they have ignored your rollback. People would be able to afford a car. So, and by the way, we’re going to see how that turns out, but a lot of people agree with me. Many people. The car has gotten so expensive because they have computers all over the place for an extra little bit of gasoline. And — That’s not — And I’m okay with electric cars, too. I have given big incentives for electric cars, but what they have done in California is just crazy. Vice president Biden, I’d like you to respond to the president’s climate change record, but I want to ask you about a concern, you proposed $2 trillion in green jobs, you talk about new limits, not abolishing, but new limits on fracking, ending the use of fossil fuels by 2035 and zero net emission of greenhouse gases by 2050. The president says a lot of these things would tank the economy and cost millions of jobs. He’s absolutely wrong, number one. Number two, if, in fact, during our administration, the recovery act, I was able to bring down the cost of renewable energy to cheaper than or as cheap as coal and gas and oil. Nobody’s going to build another coal-fired plant in America. No one’s going to build another oil-fired plant in America. They’re going to move to renewable energy, number one. Number two, we’re going to make sure that we’re able to take the federal fleet and turn it into a fleet that’s run on their electric vehicles, making sure we can do that, we’re going to put 500,000 charging stations on all of the highways that we’re going to be building in the future. We’re going to build an economy that, in fact, is going to provide for the ability of us to take 4 million buildings and make sure that they, in fact, are weatherized in a way that, in fact, will emit significantly less gas and oil because the heat will not be going out. There are so many things that we can do now to create thousands and thousands of jobs. We can get to net zero in terms of energy production by 2035. Not only not costing people jobs, creating jobs. Creating millions of good paying jobs. Not 15 bucks an hour, but prevailing wage. By having a new infrastructure that, in fact, is green. And the first thing I will do, I will rejoin the Paris accord. I will join the Paris accord because with us out of it, look what’s happening. It’s all falling apart. And talk about someone who has no relationship with foreign policy, Brazil, the rain forest in Brazil are being ripped down. More carbon is absorbed in that rain forest than every bit of carbon that’s emitted in the United States. Instead of doing something about that, I would be gathering up and making sure we had the countries of the world coming up with $20 billion to say, here’s $20 billion, stop — stop tearing down the forest. And if you don’t, then you’re going to have significant economic consequences. What about the argument that president trump basically says that you have to balance environmental interests and economic interests and he’s drawn his line. Well, he hasn’t drawn a line. He stick, for example, makes sure, he wants to make sure that methane’s not a problem. You can emit more me than without it being a problem. This is a guy that says you don’t have to have mileage standards for automobiles that exist now. This is a guy — Not true. Not true. It’s all true. And — He’s talking about the green new deal and it’s not 2 billion or 20 billion, it’s $100 trillion. I’m talking about the Biden And rebuild the building. It is the dumbest — two-car systems are out, where they want to take out the cows, too, you know, that’s not true, either. Not true. This is a — this is a $100 trillion — that’s more money than our country could make in 100 years. That is simply not the case. Let me, because I actually — wait a minute, sir, I actually have studied your plan and it includes upgrading 4 million buildings, weatherizing 2 million homes over four years, building 1.5 million energy efficient homes. So, the question becomes, the president is saying, I think some people who support the president would say, that sounds like it’s going to cost a lot of money and hurt the economy. It’s going to create thousands of jobs. Not — Let he finish. He doesn’t know how to do that. The fact is, it’s going to create millions of good paying jobs. And these tax incentives for people to weatherize, which he wants to get rid of. It’s going to make the economy much safer. Look how much we’re paying now to deal with the hurricanes, to deal with, by the way, he has an answer for hurricanes, maybe you should drop a nuclear weapon on them. I never said that. He did said that. You made it up. And here’s the deal. You make up a lot. We’re going to be in a position where we can create hard good jobs by making sure the environment is clean and we all are in better shape. We spend billions of dollars now, billions of dollars on floods, hurricanes, rising seas. We’re in real trouble. Look what’s happened just in the midwest with these storms that come through and wipe out entire sections and counties in Iowa. That didn’t happen before. Because of global warming. We make up 15% of the world’s problem. We, in fact — but the rest of the world, we have to get them to come along. That’s why we have to get back into the Paris accord. All right, gentlemen — Wait a minute, Chris, so, why didn’t he do it for 47 years. Why didn’t get the world — China sends up real dirt into the air, Russia does, India does, they all do. We’re supposed to be good. And by the way, he made a couple of statements, the green new deal is $100 trillion. That is not my plan. The green new deal is not my plan. Going to rebuild — Gentlemen. He made his statement about the military. He said I said something about the military. He and his friends made it up and then they went with it. I never said it. Okay. That is not true. You are done in this segment. He called the military stupid bastards. I did not say that. He said stupid bastards. Sir, stop. Play it. Go ahead, Mr. Vice president answered his final question. The final question is, I can’t remember which of all his rantings. I’m having a little trouble myself. About the economy and about this question of what it’s going to cost? The economy. The green new deal and the idea of what your environmental changes will do. The green new deal will pay for itself as we move forward. We’re not going to build plants that, in fact, are great polluting plants. Do you superintendent port the green new deal? No, I don’t. Oh, that’s a big statement. I support — You lost the radical left. I support the Biden plan that I put forward. The Biden plan. Which is different than what he calls the radical green new deal. All right, gentlemen, final

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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