Fox News cuts away from storm press conference — saying it's 'political' for mentioning climate change

After inflicting widespread misery in Louisiana, Hurricane Ida was downgraded to a "tropical storm" by meteorologists and made its way to the United States' Northeastern Corridor — where its remnants inflicted more damage in the form of heavy rains, flooding and tornadoes. Major streets in New York City and Philadelphia were badly flooded, and the NYC Subway was shut down. Rep. Gregory Meeks of Queens discussed the damage during a press conference on Thursday, and when climate change was mentioned, Fox News' Bill Hemmer accused Meeks and fellow Democrats of becoming "political."

Queens, like other NYC boroughs, suffered severe flooding — including parts of Meeks' district. At the press conference, Meeks thanked New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for "instantaneously" responding to the damage. And Hemmer, covering the press conference on Fox News, abruptly jumped in and complained that the gathering had "turned political quite quickly."

Hemmer condescendingly remarked, "It didn't take long to put the focus on quote-unquote 'climate change' here in New York."

Hemmer is being slammed on social media for reflexively resorting to climate change denial while covering the devastation in the Northeastern U.S. Here are some of the responses: