Pittsburgh Review

Many of Joe Biden’s policy positions have a common theme — you won’t find out what they are until after the election.

During Biden’s recent town hall event in Philadelphia, the Democrat nominee was repeatedly asked to elaborate on many of his vague and contradictory policy positions, including his stance on climate regulation. 

As many Pennsylvanians know, fossil fuels play a critical role in our state’s economy — according to a recent  study, a fracking ban, like the one that Biden repeatedly endorsed during the earlier stages of his campaign, would destroy around 610,000 jobs in the commonwealth. But don’t worry, drill workers — maybe he’ll teach you how to code instead.

For this reason, it wasn't surprising to hear a Pennsylvania voter bring up Biden’s energy policy and ask the former vice president to clarify his stance on fracking. Regrettably, the Democrat nominee proceeded to do exactly what he has done for the past few months — dance around the truth. Here’s what the Fred Astaire of public policy had to say:

"First of all, I want to make it clear, I do not propose banning fracking,” he said, adding that the future “rests in renewable energy.” But when Biden was pressed to explain how it was possible to end fossil fuels without ending fracking, he deflected, stating that local boilermakers “endorse” his climate proposal. 

Actually, local boilermakers are not all on board with his agenda. In fact, Boilermakers Local 154, a prominent Pittsburgh union with around 1,500 members, strongly  opposes the Democrat Party’s proposed “war on fossil fuels.” 

The closest he came to giving an actual answer on the fracking issue was when he hinted that he would allow fracking operations to continue, but only if they met an extensive list of criteria that would effectively regulate the industry out of existence.

He then went on to say that the radical Green New Deal is not a part of his policy proposal. “My deal is the crucial framework — but not the New Green Deal [sic],” he insisted.

Translation: Biden doesn’t really know what he wants to do, and will defer to the wishes of extremists such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who co-chairs his climate policy task force.

Here’s the deal — Biden’s current rhetoric on climate change doesn’t match the language of his own platform. “Biden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face,” his website reads. And yet, the Democrat nominee continues to pretend as if that controversial policy is not part of his official climate agenda. 

My question to Biden — a question that no one in the media seems capable of asking — is simple: If he really does oppose the Green New Deal, and believes that it’s too radical for his climate agenda, why has no one on his staff bothered to update the language of his own policy platform? Doesn’t that seem like an obvious thing to do, considering the fact that the candidate clearly disagrees with what is written on his website? 

Of course, this wasn’t the only question that Biden was allowed to dodge during the event. 

When  asked whether he supports or opposes packing the Supreme Court, the former vice president demurred, protesting that revealing his position would distract from the ongoing confirmation hearings of Judge Amy Coney Barrett. When pressed further, Biden said that he would make his stance known before November 3 but only “Depending on how [the Republicans] handle” the confirmation process.

Translation: Biden doesn’t like the process of selecting Supreme Court justices as laid out in the U.S. Constitution, because he doesn’t like Judge Barrett, and he fully intends to pack the Court with as many new justices as necessary to make it conform to his ideological preferences.

Part of the reason why Pennsylvanians still don’t know so many key details of Biden’s agenda is because the mainstream media doesn’t really want to grill the former vice president with tough questions. The Democrat nominee, for instance, was not asked a single question about a recent bombshell report from The New York Post contradicting his repeated claims to have “never spoken” with his son, Hunter, about questionable overseas business dealings while Joe Biden was vice president. 

Pennsylvania voters deserve to know the truth about Biden's policies and his record. Sadly, we didn’t get either during his Philadelphia town hall.  

– Rose Tennent of Pennsylvania is on the Advisory Board for the Women for Trump Coalition and has been a prominent figure for twenty years as a syndicated conservative political talk show host. Her show “Rose Unplugged” can be heard on KDKA AM NewsTalk and at www.roseunplugged.com