Green Groups Blast Debate Moderators for Asking Zero Climate Questions

Tuesday’s debate in Charleston, South Carolina was the 10th time Democratic hopefuls faced off. It was moderated by CBS’s Gayle King, Margaret Brennan, Major Garrett and Bill Whitaker, and could have been an opportunity for the seven candidates on stage — frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Vice President Joe Biden, former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren — to address their plans for tackling the planetary emergency.

It wasn’t.

Climate action advocates joined Ocasio-Cortez, a Sanders campaign surrogate, in criticizing the moderators’ failure to ask about the crisis.

In “more than two hours of debate — in a city that is already facing the consequences of the crisis — not a single question was asked on climate change. This is unacceptable,” Sierra Club said Tuesday night. “The voters have demanded action, and the public deserves plans.”

“We cannot afford four more years of Trump‘s deadly and dangerous inaction while communities like Charleston are experiencing what happens when the president ignores climate change,” the environmental group continued. “Every Democratic debate must demand answers on how the candidates will address the climate crisis.”