Rubio Slams Obama over Claim ‘Fish Swimming in the Streets’ of Miami

‘We have had some of the flooding issues on Miami Beach ... primarily it’s because Miami and all of South Florida is built on a swamp’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: 

O’DONNELL: “I want to ask you about what’s happening in Paris because we have 190 nations about to agree to a massive climate change deal. And I sat down with the president on Wednesday and asked him about the criticism that you and some of the other Republican candidates have leveled at him. Let’s listen.”
[clip starts]
O’DONNELL: “When Chris Christie says I don’t see evidence that climate change is a crisis, when Marco Rubio says not sure what percentage of it is due to man’s activity, there’s no consensus on it, you say what, they’re just wrong?”
OBAMA: “They’re absolutely wrong. It’s not subject to dispute. Mr. Rubio is from Florida and you can go now to places in South Florida where when the sun is out during high tide, you’ve got fish swimming in the streets because the flooding is so high. The evidence is there right now that drought, floods, storm surges are hurting people right now. And that’s only going to get worse.”
[clip ends]
O’DONNELL: “Is the evidence —“
RUBIO: “Fish swimming in the streets? We’ve had some flooding issues on Miami beach. One of the reasons might be because of some rise in the sea level but primarily it’s because of Miami and all of South Florida is built on a swamp. Miami Beach is an artificial island that was build because of dragging. The fundamental issue for policy makers is what to do about it. Everything the president is advocating for, even the scientists admit we don’t believe it would make a dramatic impact any time in the near future on trends in the climate but I tell you would have a dramatic impact on our economy. Here’s one more point. The United States has already significantly reduced carbon emissions in comparison to other countries in the world. all the growth in carbon emission over the next 30 years will come out of India and China and other developing countries and they don’t intend to do anything about it. No matter what document they intend to sign so their economy meets parity with ours.”

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