Watters on Beto's climate plan: He's a 'scam artist' who feels guilty about America's economic success
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The Five" co-host Jesse Watters had some tough words for 2020 hopeful Beto O'Rourke after the former Texas representative proposed a $5 trillion climate change plan alongside the claim that the United States only had 10 years left to address the issue.
"If someone calls you on the phone and says you're going to die in ten years unless you give me all your money, that's a scam," Watters said. "He's a scam artist, and everybody knows it."
O'Rourke asserted his controversial, 10-year prediction while appearing on MSNBC on Monday. He told host Chris Hayes that he sought to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}During that appearance, he indicated that he would have to make himself an opponent of the oil and gas industries' interests. "We know that certain oil and gas corporations have been fighting public policy on this issue, have been hiding their own science and research at the expense of our climate and human life," he said.
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"So whenever those two things come in contrast or in opposition, I'm always going to choose the people of this country." O'Rourke also said that he wanted people in the fossil fuel industry to act as partners in reaching his goal.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Watters balked at that, calling O'Rourke "cocky."
"You have a $21 trillion U.S. economy, the fossil fuel industry runs this economy, it's created all of this wealth, revolutionized transportation, communications, industry, lifted people out of poverty," Watters said.
"Beto, who's done nothing except lose to [Sen.] Ted Cruz, [R-Texas], comes up and says I'm going to take $5 trillion and I'm going to reverse everything and change it all. He's no Einstein, he's no Carnegie. Where does he get off thinking he's going to stop human progress?" Watters asked.
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He went on to speculate that O'Rourke pushed his climate plan because he felt "guilty" about the American economy's success because "he and other liberals have not had enough input in it."
O'Rourke's program was an ambitious endeavor similar to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's, D-N.Y., "Green New Deal," which many saw as too expensive and unrealistic. When Ocasio-Cortez responded to O'Rourke's plan, she said he didn't have an aggressive enough timeline.