Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., blasted U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry during an interview with Newsmax about Kerry owning a private jet.
Waltz's comments Friday on "Wake Up America" came after a tense exchange between him and Kerry on Thursday during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.
"Under oath, he told my colleague Cory Mills, a representative from Florida, 'I never owned a plane," Waltz said. "And that's why, I went back at it. And he said, 'Oh, well, it was my wife's plane. It was my family's plane.' And I want to be clear, I have no issue with folks making money being successful in America if they want to fly private great.
"But the hypocrisy while he is demanding Americans make sacrifices, that we radically transform our economy, that we actually replace one dependency with another in terms of China, the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels and wind turbines. …
"But yet he's going to fly around private. And his family is going to fly around private. It's just ridiculous, and we're going to call it out."
Waltz was asked how Kerry's "green agenda" is not a "China first" agenda.
Said Waltz: "It's a China first agenda on so many levels. ... China opened more coal fired power plants last year than the rest of the world combined — one per week and oh, by the way, and even richer irony they increased their imports of Russian coal by over 50%.
"The largest solar panel factory in the world is in western China — staffed with slave labor powered by coal-fired plants to build the solar panels."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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