Tucker Carlson: ‘Is California Its Own Nation Now?’

Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused California of being “high on its own fumes,” during Wednesday evening’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” by recently making a unilateral decision without federal consent to strike an agreement with China on collaborating over reducing emissions.

Carlson took a San Francisco Bay Area radio host to task for supporting the recent climate agreement Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown struck with China — after President Donald Trump announced last week that the U.S. would withdraw from the Obama-era Paris Agreement on climate change. Trump argued that such an agreement would place the U.S. economy at a significant disadvantage while ceding control to other countries.

While speaking with KGO radio host Ethan Bearman, a supporter of Brown’s move, Carlson insisted that “the Chinese laughed, but Brown didn’t hear it.”

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“Is California its own nation now?” Carlson asked. “So Ethan, I grew up in California when it was a state. It was one of 50 states. And now, I guess, Gov. Brown is going rogue, declaring himself emperor in your country by negotiating international treaties. What happened?”

Bearman insisted that the agreement with China was “non-binding,” and thus didn’t qualify as an international treaty in violation of the Constitution.

“As you know, this is a non-binding agreement where we’re going to share the technology,” Bearman said. “Why not lead in this country, since D.C. doesn’t want to lead? Why not lead in the 21st- and 22nd-century energy sources instead of what the president is doing, which is falling back to 16th-century energy sources focusing on coal?”

Carlson answered California shouldn’t “lead” with foreign powers, “because California doesn’t have the right to do that. It’s a state.”

“You’re basically creating your own foreign policy when that right is constitutionally reserved for the federal government,” Carlson continued. “And that used to be obvious, but California is so high on its own fumes — macrobiotic fumes — that they, like, lost sight of that somehow.”

Bearman conceded that the Paris accord had its issues while insisting that “today’s agreement is an improvement over the Paris Agreement.”

But Carlson said, “If you’re upset about climate change and you believe it’s being driven by CO2 emissions … why would you sign an agreement with the world’s largest polluter, China, that allows them to continue to pollute for another generation?”

When Trump announced the Paris withdrawal the California governor asserted people would die, telling CNN, “this is a crazy decision. It’s against the facts. It’s against science. It’s against reality itself. People are going to die. Habitat will be destroyed. Seas will rise. Insects will spread.”

Carlson insisted that Brown’s swing from mere outrage over Trump’s decision to striking an agreement with a foreign country didn’t make sense.

“Would you ever declare ownership of [Marine Corp Base] Camp Pendleton and declare war on Mexico? I mean, like what other unilateral decision is California —just to prepare us for the future?” Carlson asked. “I mean, you guys have decided we are not following federal law. We’re entering into agreements, even non-binding ones with other nations. So like, the next step would be war, right? Your own uniforms?”

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Bearman argued once again that the agreement was non-binding and wasn’t a treaty while adding that it makes sense for California to “make a return” on its clean energy investments.

But Carlson remained unconvinced.

“This is hilarious on so many levels. Of course, a lot of that technology, the green technology that you referred to, is subsidized by federal dollars,” Carlson said. “As Obama said, you didn’t build that. The rest of us did.”

“So you’re taking an investment from the other 49 states and making money on it and then claiming moral credit for it and then wagging your finger at the rest of the country and saying, ‘We’re better than you,'” Carlson added. “I guess we’re used to that, but it’s annoying.”

Carlson mocked California’s record of leadership, saying “you also lead the country in poverty. You have more than any other state. You lead the country in middle-class people fleeing to Idaho. You definitely lead in that category.”