'False dichotomy': Fox News omits a key detail to blast Biden’s Israel response

12 October 2023

Fox News hosts, from Laura Ingraham to Martha MacCallum, have been pushing a narrative that addressing climate change somehow detracts from the Biden Administration's ability to help Israel following Hamas' terrorist October 7 terrorist attack.

Fox News has specifically targeted National Security Counsel (NSC) official John Kirby, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral. But Emily Atkin and Arielle Samuelson of Heated note that Kirby discussed climate change during a Fox News appearance because MacCallum herself raised the subject.

"Fox News keeps airing segments blasting a Biden official for bringing up climate change while Israel and Hamas are at war," Heated observes. "They fail to mention that the reason he brought up climate change is because Fox News specifically asked him about it."

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MacCallum asked Kirby if President Joe Biden, during the Israel-Hamas War, stood by his comment that climate change is "more frightening than a nuclear war." And Kirby responded that climate change "actually threatens and is capable of wiping out all human life on Earth over time."

Kirby told MacCallum, "I don't know how more existential you can get than that, but that doesn't mean that we walk away from our obligations or our national security interests."

In other words, Kirby views both climate change and terrorism as dire threats — and realizes that addressing one doesn't rule out addressing the other.

Ingraham, during a recent segment, said of Kirby, "Even during war.… they go to their point of major fanaticism, which is climate change." But Heated notes that Ingraham "did not mention that actually, Fox News was the one who brought up climate change during war."

According to experts on national security and climate change, the claim that one detracts from the other is not new on parts of the right.

Atkin and Samuelson explain, "This is not the first time Republicans have used the threat of terrorism to attack climate concerns at home. In fact, it's a talking point that spans back decades, said Marcus King, an environment and international affairs professor at Georgetown University, and senior fellow at the Center for Climate & Security."

King told Heated, "When we went into Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003, this issue was surfaced by the Republicans…. It was this false dichotomy of saying what's more important to focus on."

Republicans, according to King, later claimed that environmentalism weakened the Obama Administration from a defense standpoint. And they do this, King told Heated, "to paint Democratic administrations as soft on security."

Find Heated's full report at this link.

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