Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, addressed the recent hurricanes and the effects on climate change, saying, "we are seeing, in real time, a slow-motion disaster movie that we are now living through that is not hypothetical" on CNN's "The Axe Files" podcast Monday.
The former congressman told host David Axelrod that Hurricanes Harvey and Irma should act as a warning to the rest of the world about the dangers of climate change, especially while there's a "climate denier in the White House."
President Donald Trump has long questioned the scientific evidence for climate change, and withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement. Inslee said that he "couldn't think of anything more sort of backward-leaning, and I can't think of sort of a more un-American thing" than abandoning the agreement.
"We're one of the most economically rich countries in the world and yet to be at the very back the caboose — not even on the caboose — of the international train is an international embarrassment and an environmental disaster in the making if we don't reverse this course," he added, noting that the country's history of taking an international leadership role against fascism and communism.
Inslee concluded that his party must support a candidate that will "make climate change front and center, a foundational priority for the United States," in the next presidential election, though he said it's "just too early to think about" running himself.
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