Texas Governor Rick Perry responded Monday to criticism by President Obama regarding his position on climate change, calling the president's remarks "outrageous" and suggesting Mr. Obama was exploiting the fires for political purposes.
"It's outrageous President Obama would use the burning of 1,500 homes, the worst fires in state history, as a political attack," Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan told Politico via email. "This from a president whose nation is financially suffering and his solution is taking more money away from families by raising taxes on families and small businesses."
Mr. Obama on Sunday took a swipe at Texas Governor Rick Perry for his skepticism regarding climate change, pointing to "a governor whose state is on fire denying climate change" as exemplification of the weakness of the Republican presidential field.
"I mean, has anybody been watching the debates lately?" he asked at a campaign fundraiser in California. "You've got a governor whose state is on fire denying climate change," Obama said.
The president also called out audience members from two recent GOP presidential debates for their responses to sensitive moments in the debates.
"It's true," said Mr. Obama. "You've got audiences cheering at the prospect of somebody dying because they don't have health care and booing a service member in Iraq because they're gay."
"That's not reflective of who we are," Mr. Obama continued. "This is a choice about the fundamental direction of our country. 2008 was an important direction. 2012 is a more important election."
Perry, whose state has recently been ravaged by a series of wildfires, has suggested that climate change is a hoax - and that the data surrounding global warming has been manipulated by climate scientists for financial gain.
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