Private Jet Travel Skyrockets Among Climate Change-Obsessed 2020 Democrats
Despite a focus on climate policy in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, recent months have seen campaign expenditures on privately chartered flights skyrocketing among the candidates.
According to The Hill, Democratic candidates collectively spent about $680,000 worth of campaign donations traveling the country by private jet in the second quarter of fiscal year 2019.
In the past three months, that spending has tripled to nearly $2.2 million.
In other words, the supposedly climate-conscious Democrats managed to increase their spending on gas-guzzling private jet travel by more than 220 percent.
JUST IN: Private flight spending soars to $2.2 million in 3Q for 2020 Democratic presidential candidates https://t.co/uj6DVncPDP pic.twitter.com/VmpQfOFPqx
— The Hill (@thehill) October 18, 2019
The biggest offender was former Vice President Joe Biden, who accounted for nearly half of that $2.2 million at approximately $924,000, The Hill reported.
But Biden certainly was not the only candidate spending more on jet fuel than the average American could dream of spending in three lifetimes.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, and California Sen. Kamala Harris — both struggling to rise above 10 percent support in the polls, according to RealClearPolitics average — spent $479,000 and $253,000, respectively.
In terms of spending increases, however, Buttigieg could not hold a candle to Harris’ metaphorical flame — which grew to 48 times its second-quarter size.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont also broke the top five in private expenditures last quarter, despite their radical left views and policy proposals on the topic of climate change.
The two admittedly had kept such expenditures down at the outset of their campaigns — managing to consistently battle it out for second and third place in national polling support with less than $20,000 apiece spent on private flights cross-country.
To their credit, Sanders and Warren were even caught on camera flying coach on the same plane at the outset of the campaign.
Off2Miami! @BernieSanders in Seat 15A Thought Bubble: “Is she going to kick my chair? I know she’s going to kick my chair! Elizabeth, don’t even think of kicking my chair!” @ewarren in 16A Thought Bubble: “I’m going to kick it the exact moment he thinks I won’t.” @thehill pic.twitter.com/jOTAJSyIwu
— Steve Clemons (@SCClemons) June 21, 2019
Still, in the third quarter, their campaigns gave way to massive spending increases that totaled in the hundreds of thousands by the quarter’s end on Sept. 30.
According to The Hill, both Buttigieg and Warren excused the spending, telling the outlet they had given sizable donations to carbon emissions offsetting firms.
But a single private jet flight releases approximately eight times more carbon dioxide per traveler than the average airline flight by the most conservative estimates, according to The Independent.
And these politicians and climate activists are, by and large, taking more private flights than the average American makes in a year. In fact, some are making more flights than some American voters make in a lifetime.
Of course, this has not stopped them from throwing immense support behind the left’s knee-jerk shift toward radical climate sensationalism.
How about that Green New Deal ? @SenSanders @JoeBiden @ewarren @RepAOC
— Katsui (@YogiKatMAGA) October 18, 2019
Warren and Sanders have been the most vocal on the issue, with Warren unveiling a $2 trillion global climate plan on the trail in June and Sanders calling climate change the “biggest crisis of all.”
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