Are there more important political developments today than Elizabeth Warren hiding from a camera after exiting a private-jet flight? Sure, but in the Green New Deal/climate-change-hysteria era, perhaps none quite so entertaining. Warren, whose presidential campaign website includes not just support for the Green New Deal but a proposal for a “Blue New Deal” as well to eliminate carbon output and save the oceans, seems relaxed and at ease as she exits this charter jet.
At least until she sees the camera. Hoo boy (via Katie Pavlich):
Hahaha Warren was clearly trying to hide behind one of her staffers when she noticed someone was filming her get off the private jet. https://t.co/M9HPqw6657
— Cameron Cawthorne (@Cam_Cawthorne) February 4, 2020
It’s the hiding that really sells this, because otherwise it’s at least potentially defensible. Presidential candidates get ripped for not doing enough retail politics, especially in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire, where commercial flights aren’t all that abundant. Warren could simply have offered an explanation that on rare occasions in this particular context, a charter flight is necessary — but that it should be a choice of last resort. It would still be fairly hypocritical as environmental advocates rarely if ever concede anything about practicality when demanding that everyone else live according to their diktats, but at least it would address the obvious contradiction here.
Instead, Warren tries to use one of her aides as a human shield against the camera. Way to champion transparency and accountability, Senator!
Speaking of which, Warren’s hardly the only hypocrite in the Greta Thunberg Army. The Washington Free Beacon did an analysis of private-jet use by Democratic candidates, and guess who comes in first place? Feel the after-Berner, baby:
The Bernie Sanders campaign spent just under $1.2 million on private jet travel last quarter, outpacing the entire 2020 Democratic presidential primary field.
The most recent filing from Sanders reveals $1,199,579 in spending during the final three months of 2019 to Apollo Jets, LLC, a “luxury private jet charter service.” The campaign spent an additional $23,941 for transportation to Virginia-based Advanced Aviation Team.
And as if right on cue, Bernie offered this trenchant criticism of Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech:
Bernie Sanders on Pres. Trump’s State of the Union address: "In the year 2020, how can a president of the United States give a State of the Union speech and not mention climate change?” https://t.co/F8xQbwgQ2u pic.twitter.com/g4RrjEIvjb
— ABC News (@ABC) February 5, 2020
Oof. Sanders and Warren aren’t alone on this score, either:
The candidate who comes closest to matching Sanders in private jet spending was former vice president Joe Biden, whose campaign spent $1,040,698 to Advanced Aviation Team last quarter.
An analysis of private jet spending in filings from other top candidates found that Elizabeth Warren’s campaign spent $720,518 and Pete Buttigieg’s campaign spent $323,518. Michael Bloomberg, who pumped a whopping $200 million of his personal fortune into his campaign’s opening weeks, spent about $646,000 on private jet travel, about half of what Sanders spent.
Those numbers don’t suggest “occasional logistical issues.” They suggest standard operational convenience, of the very same kind that Democrats demonize in their environmental lecturing. To paraphrase our colleague Instapundit, I’ll believe that climate change is an emergency when its hysterics start living like it is.
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