Trump slams climate change at U.N.

Benji Backer returns to the show. He's the CEO and founder of Nature is Nonpartisan. Benji, welcome back. It's been about a year since we first had you on. Good to have you here. It's great to be here. What do you make of what the president said in 2025 that climate change is a con job? Well, it's wrong that it's a con job. But what this is emulating is that this issue has been caught up in the culture war and it's now a partisan issue, right? In the 1990s, 92% of Americans self-identified as environmentalists. Today, that number is 38%. And the reason that is because people associate climate change in the environment with partisan identity. And it's not just a Donald Trump problem. It's an American problem. We have to get climate change and the environment out of the culture wars if we're going to solve the subject. Clean air, clean water, healthy forests, a healthy climate, that doesn't care about our political identity. And so I lean right. But I don't really care what political labels anymore when it comes to the environment. We have to be able to work across party lines and figure out how to get conservatives back into the conversation to make this bipartisan again.

So let's just fact-check some of the basic information. The president calls renewable energy a joke. He says it doesn't work. It's too expensive. He also says energy costs are coming down for Americans. Energy costs for Americans are up. But what about renewable energy? Well, renewable energy needs to be a part of the energy mix. I think where the left has got it wrong is that they've said renewable energy is the answer to everything, and we're going to be a hundred percent renewable by 2030. And where the right's got it wrong is by saying that we don't need renewables at all. We need nuclear. We need oil and gas still. And we also need renewables. We need all of these things to power the grid if we're actually going to have cheap energy prices in this country and not have rolling blackouts. But the problem is we have the Democratic Party for years saying that we just need one thing and the Republican Party is saying that we just need the other. And we also partisanized energy somehow. People just want to keep the lights on in their homes. They want to be able to power the gas stoves with electric stoves in their house. They just want to be able to have the power that they need to survive. And both parties have actually waged a war on energy against each other, but it's actually just been against the American people, because they're not trying to focus on how to lower energy prices. They're trying to make a political point. And the president and this administration needs to understand the importance of renewables, not to say that renewables are the only answer, but they're part of the energy mix. I live in Arizona. And we use a lot of solar. And solar works really well during the day. But at night, we need nuclear and natural gas. But we need it all if we're going to power America. Really, really important points that you've made. And before we let you go, I know that you were good friends with Charlie Kirk. I know you had mentioned you had drifted apart in recent years. But I just want to give you a moment to reflect and let us know how you've been dealing with his loss these last few weeks. Well, I think it's been a mix of emotions for me, because I've never seen someone I've known so well get killed. That's a really hard thing to have seen. I think it also really, my work at Nature is Nonpartisan is to try to bring Americans together for an environmental movement that represents Americans and helps us understand each other, but also fight for each other's environment, feels more important than ever before, because political violence and polarization is on the rise. And as someone who travels around the country to meet with young Americans, we need a future where we actually work together on something. And what better issue than the environment? So given this really violent, difficult time in American history, can we come together around this, has been a reflection point I've had and given me more motivation, despite this really hard moment where it's really hard to even figure out how to emotionally control the response to this. But the future of America cannot be going down this path of political violence. And seeing someone die, no matter how much I disagreed with him or not, is the wrong direction for this country. And we have to figure out a way to bridge the divide and find a way forward as Americans. The environment is the one thing that we all share more than anything. And I think that if we can use this really dark moment to build a better future for the country, we'll all be better off. Well our condolences on the loss of your friend. But you've been consistent in saying in order to get things done, folks need to work together. Benji Backer, come back anytime. Great to see you. Thank you so much.