Former Secretary of State John Kerry wants to fundamentally change the United States of America.
If you make the wrong jokes, Kerry says there should be “consequences” — and he’s calling President Donald Trump a “criminal” for taking the United States out of his Paris Climate Accord deal in 2016.
“Regrettably, President Trump has eliminated American leadership and replaced it [with] know-nothing denial,” Kerry said in a interview on Thursday.
He said serious action must be taken by voters in 2020 — and that anyone who joked about global warming should be punished.
“The biggest single thing that is lacking today is political accountability,” Kerry said. “People can mock the concept of climate change with impunity and there is no cost to pay. That’s got to stop.”
Kerry later added that the 2020 presidential election would be “a moment for people to be held to the test.”
“In this midterm election, we had a youth vote that went from 19% to 31% … but it still means that 69% of young people, who have the greatest stake of all in the future, didn’t choose to vote,” Kerry said.
As the United States highest ranking diplomat during former President Barack Obama’s second term in office, Kerry spent a large amount of his political clout getting the 2015 Paris agreement signed by nearly 200 countries.
Each signing county promised to drastically reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced — but none more drastic than the United States’ requirement.
Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement after he was elected — and Kerry hasn’t forgiven him.
“We have to blame the politicians,” he said in a veiled reference to the president. “Blame the people who are turning people off from the system … who are not giving people the vision of what we can really do to build our economy. Change the future.”
The White House has yet to respond to Kerry’s statement.
The Horn editorial team