Wash. Examiner Describes Congressman with 0% Heritage Score as ‘Centrist’

The Washington Examiner’s Daily on Energy project embarrassed itself today, calling climate-activist congressman Sean Casten (D-IL), who holds a 0% lifetime rating from Heritage Action, as a “centrist Democrat.” By earning a rating of 0%, Casten holds an even more leftist rating than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (17%) and Ilhan Omar (12%). The Examiner made its subjective and ridiculous assertion about Casten being a centrist in an effort to make Casten’s climate extremism sound middle-of-the-road and reasonable.

The Examiner soft-tossed Casten a creampuff interview, giving him a media platform to – in the words of the Examiner – “blast the GOP” for opposing carbon dioxide taxes and other extremist climate measures.

After calling Casten a “centrist Democrat,” the Examiner piled on this false narrative. The Examiner claimed Casten “has emerged as one of the most independent-minded members on the House’s special climate committee created by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.”

Showing how he amassed a voting record to the left of AOC and Ilhan Omar, Casten claimed that imposing carbon dioxide taxes should be just one of many new government restrictions on energy and climate.

The Examiner swept under the rug the fact that Casten has financially profited off his climate alarmism. Casten and his father founded a recycling waste heat company, marketing his company as a way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The Examiner described Casten, despite this bias and apparent conflict of interest as simply, “A former clean energy businessman and scientist.”

No, Washington Examiner, a member of Congress with a 0% Heritage Action lifetime rating, scoring farther to the left than AOC and Ilhan Omar, is not a “centrist Democrat.”

James Taylor
James Taylor
James Taylor is the President of the Heartland Institute. Taylor is also director of Heartland's Arthur B. Robinson Center for Climate and Environmental Policy. Taylor is the former managing editor (2001-2014) of Environment & Climate News, a national monthly publication devoted to sound science and free-market environmentalism.

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