Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) is the rare GOP presidential candidate who has acknowledged that climate change is a real problem requiring us to “protect” the “creation that the Lord has given us.” But just days after earning plaudits for his relatively moderate-sounding approach in Thursday’s GOP presidential debate, Kasich adopted a climate-change denialist approach on Sunday.
On NBC’s Meet the Press, host Chuck Todd called Kasich one of the “big winners of Thursday’s debate,” and praised him for an “impressive performance for the supportive crowd” in his home state and read a Time magazine quote comparing him to Pope Francis.
Kasich distanced himself from the Pontiff on economic issues and environmental ones. “I think that man absolutely affects the environment, but as to whether, what the impact is… the overall impact — I think that’s a legitimate debate.”
He then added: “We don’t want to destroy people’s jobs, based on some theory that is not proven.”
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Though Kasich had previously indicated that he believed in climate science, he had also made clear that he didn’t want to do much about it.
In a later segment, Todd noted that while the “mainstream media” had been highly positive about Kasich’s debate performance, NBC’s polling showed no bump for him among GOP primary voters.