GOP Lawmaker's Climate Gag At Pete Buttigieg Is Comedy Gold For All The Wrong Reasons - HuffPost
GOP Lawmaker's Climate Gag At Pete Buttigieg Is Comedy Gold For All The Wrong Reasons | HuffPost Latest News
Break out the sad trombone for climate change-denying Rep. Doug LaMalfa.
The California Republican on Wednesday tried to mock Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg with a joke denying climate change.
“Climate change is real, and we’ve got to do something about it,” Buttigieg told LaMalfa during a discussion about carbon emissions and electric cars at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing.
“Yeah, this one’s called autumn,” LaMalfa snarked in response.
But the gag fell spectacularly flat when Buttigieg couldn’t hear LaMalfa’s line.
Buttigieg asked LaMalfa to repeat himself not once but twice.
And by the time the punchline landed, it had lost all of its impact.
Buttigieg then fired back: “Yes, that’s the seasons changing, which, respectively, is not the same thing as the climate changing.”
The exchange is a comedy masterclass in what not to do:
Related Knowledge Center: Climate legislation
The federal government and states are in the process of implementing two laws — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — an investment of more than a trillion dollars to address climate change.