Washington Gov. Jay Inslee was pleased with the spotlight on climate change during Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate in Detroit, saying he got to drive home his fight against climate change.
“Our house is on fire,” Inslee said during an interview after the debate. “We have to talk about how to put that fire out, and we got to do that tonight, so I was very happy about that.”
Inslee’s plan calls for drastic measures to battle climate change, including reaching 100% zero emissions in buses and new light- and medium-duty cars, achieving 100% zero carbon pollution from new buildings, and requiring 100% carbon-neutral power – all by 2030.
Inslee was one of several candidates who forced former Vice President Joe Biden to defend his political record and policy standpoints during the debate. In one exchange Inslee attacked Biden’s plan to fight climate change calling it “middling.”
“These deadlines are set by science,” Inslee said during the debate on CNN. “Mr. Vice President your argument is not with me it’s with science, and unfortunately your plan is just too late.”
When Biden was asked if there was a place for coal and fracking in his administration, Biden said, no. He would plan to “work it out.”
“We cannot work this out,” Inslee fired back. “The time is up.”
It’s still unknown if Inslee’s campaign will last through the next Democratic presidential debate in September in Houston. To make it on that stage Inslee will need to reach 2% in polls released between June 28 and August 28 and collect donations from at least 130,000 individuals by August 28.
His campaign said Inslee has received 10,000 donations over 24 hours since the Democratic debate, and he's now just shy of 100,000 total unique donors.
"That's some serious momentum," Inslee said in the tweet.