Paris Agreement on climate change: Pence says Trump 'fighting for American jobs'

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Pence: Paris Climate Accord put enormous burden on Americans

Vice president discusses President Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from the agreement on 'Hannity'

Vice President Mike Pence praised President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, telling Fox News' "Hannity" Thursday that the president was "fighting for American jobs."

Pence spoke to Fox News' Sean Hannity hours after Trump announced the U.S. was "getting out" of the deal, which the president described as "very unfair at the highest level to the United States."

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Pence described the 2015 agreement "a bad deal from the moment it was signed by the [Obama] administration."

"This is an agreement that puts an enormous burden on American consumers [and] on the American economy while allowing countries like India and China to virtually get off scot-free for a decade or more," Pence said.

The vice president also noted that the agreement amounted to "an international treaty that was never submitted to the Senate, probably because it never would have had a chance there."

Trump's decision to withdraw from the agreement was greeted with dismay by many world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, who reportedly called Trump to tell the president that the deal could not be renegotiated.

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However, Pence insisted that the United States could re-enter the accord "under terms that will put the American economy and the American people first."

The vice president stressed that Trump had decided to withdraw from the deal after "after listening to all sides," including European leaders who had pressed the president to stay in the agreement during Trump's foreign trip last week.

"The president has demonstrated his commitment not just to keep his word, but to put American workers, American consumers, American energy, and the American people first," Pence said. "The American people get it ... This is a President who is fighting for the American people, fighting for American jobs ... America is back because they have a President in President Donald Trump who is fighting every day for them."