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(CNSNews.com) - Both President Biden and his Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have been asked if the devastating tornadoes in six states on Friday are the result of climate change -- a political issue now pending in Washington.
"I'm going to be asking the EPA and others to take a look at that," Biden told reporters on Saturday. "But the fact is that we all know everything is more intense when the climate is warming — everything. And, obviously, it has some impact here."
Likewise, Mayorkas told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday that "experts and scientists" are studying whether the catastrophic tornado outbreak is a consequence of "the changes in climate."
Biden: 'I can’t give you a quantitative read'
Appearing outside his home in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday afternoon, President Biden addressed the tornado-caused deaths and destruction, saying, "This is likely to be one of the largest tornado outbreaks in our history." Biden said the federal government will do "everything it can possibly do to help."
A reporter asked Biden: "Mr. President, does this say anything to you about climate change? Is this — or do you conclude that these storms and the intensity has to do with climate change?"
"Well, all that I know is that the intensity of the weather across the board has some impact as a consequence of the warming of the planet and the climate change," Biden responded. "The specific impact on these specific storms, I can’t say at this point.
"I’m going to be asking the EPA and others to take a look at that. But the fact is that we all know everything is more intense when the climate is warming — everything. And, obviously, it has some impact here, but I can’t give you a — a quantitative read on that."
On Monday, MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire told Mayorkas -- who visited Mayfield, Kentucky on Sunday -- that such severe tornadoes don't usually happen in December: "And there is certainly some widespread belief that it is fueled by the warmer temperatures that we've had throughout much of the country, which we can probably attribute to climate change. You can speak on that if you want..."
Addressing that portion of the question, Mayorkas said, "You are absolutely right in noting this and asking the question whether this is a by-product of the changes in climate that we are seeing, not only in the country but around the world.
"And that's something that the Weather Service and all experts and scientists are studying very, very closely, because we've got to be ready for this. It's about preparedness as well as response and recovery and resilience."
President Biden and his fellow Democrats are now pressing for passage of their multi-trillion-dollar "Build Back Better Act," which is actually many bills in one. And one of those many bills is the green new deal, a leftist plan to pull the plug on fossil fuels in the United States.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) co-sponsored the green new deal with Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in 2019.
In August, Markey told MSNBC, "Without question, the green new deal is in the DNA of this green-budget resolution (reconciliation/BBB bill). "All of the things that are in, we talked about in the green new deal."