Joe Biden walks political tightrope by saying he does not support the Green New Deal

Joe Biden walked a fine line on the Green New Deal during the first presidential debate – first touting the sweeping climate change plan embraced by liberal activists as a job creator and then disavowing it.

Fox News host Chris Wallace put the former vice president on the spot about the plan that has earned rapturous support among some younger voters animated by the issue of rising global temperatures – a group Biden has struggled to recruit. Biden emphasized that he has his own plan for tackling climate change separate from the outline put forward last year by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.).

“I don’t support the Green New Deal,” Biden said when pressed by Wallace. “I support the Biden plan I put forward.”

While Biden has managed in the past to praise the Green New Deal without fully endorsing it, his most recent comments in front of a live television audience have the potential to reopen old intraparty wounds. Sensing a weak spot, President Trump sought to turn the exchange into a wedge between Democratic Party’s liberals and moderates.

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