President Joe Biden appeared to forget what year it was during a speech on Monday when he set a new goal to conserve 30% of all land and water the U.S. has jurisdiction over by 2020, prompting the White House to correct the number in the transcript of the speech.
Biden made the misstep during a speech on “climate resilience” at the Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Interpretive Center in Palo Alto, California, alongside Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom. In the speech, Biden referred to climate change as “the existential threat” to humanity and took aim at lawmakers he referred to as “MAGA Republicans.”
“And maybe most important, I’ve committed by 2020 we will have conserved 30% of all the lands and waters the United States has jurisdiction over and simultaneously reduce emissions to blunt climate impacts,” Biden said during the speech.
President. Joe. Biden.
That’s the tweet.Here’s the quote:
“And maybe most important, I've committed to it. By 2020, we will have conserved 30% of all the lands and waters the United States has jurisdiction over and simultaneously reduce emissions to blunt climate impact.” pic.twitter.com/fG0dzoeHwI— HARRISFAULKNER (@HARRISFAULKNER) June 19, 2023
In the official transcript of the speech, the year 2020 was scratched out and replaced with 2030. The transcript also corrected two other Biden statements, including saying that the so-called infrastructure bill designated $3.5 million to flood mitigation instead of $3.5 billion.
The 80-year-old president also said that thousands of farmers rely on the Colorado River for “integration” instead of “irrigation,” the transcript shows.
Biden also announced new environment-related spending efforts, including $600 million for a program called the “Climate Resilience Regional Challenge” and $2 billion for the Department of Energy to use for the electrical grid.
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The president also used the speech to go after Republicans, claiming that House Republicans held “the country hostage” over the debt ceiling deadline.
“Unfortunately, some of our MAGA Republican friends in Congress are continuing to try to undo all the progress we’ve already made in the first two and a half years,” Biden said. “They were holding the country hostage over the debt limit unless I would gut the climate provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act. I was determined not to let that happen.”
Newsom, who spoke alongside Biden, previously was floated as a potential 2024 presidential primary challenger to Biden but indicated earlier this year that he was backing Biden for re-election.
“Our democracy is under attack,” Newsom said on Twitter in April. “Our freedom is being stripped away. It’s time to step up — and there’s no one better to lead that fight than President Biden. Looking forward to another four years of his leadership. Let’s show up big today. Every dollar counts.”