Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Tuesday he is not sure he would have attended the global climate conference in Paris if he were president, saying the proposals presented there would hurt people who were struggling.
"I worry about the economic impact for our country," Bush said. "I haven't seen the specifics, but I worry that, put aside intentions, that these proposals could have an impact on the here and now, people that are really struggling right now, so I'd be uncertain whether I would attend a meeting like that where it seems like the movement is towards policies that will hurt our economy."
Bush and other Republican candidates have ridiculed President Obama for his continued rhetoric about the threat of climate change, even in the wake of terrorist attacks by the Islamic State. Bush sarcastically said that Obama's comments about the Paris climate conference being a "rebuke" to terrorism would "show ISIS we mean business."
Full exchange:
REPORTER: If you were president today and you were in Paris at the climate summit would you be opposed to--
JEB BUSH: I'm not sure I would have gone to the climate summit if I was president today.
REPORTER: You're opposed to the agenda that most of the world's nations are trying to hang out there?
BUSH: I worry about the economic impact for our country. That's my--I haven't seen the specifics, but I worry that, put aside intentions, that these proposals could have an impact on the here and now, people that are really struggling right now, so I'd be uncertain whether I would attend a meeting like that where it seems like the movement is towards policies that will hurt our economy.