Olympic skier trotted out as climate ‘expert’ says Dem apologized after he was dragged by Sen Kennedy

An attempt by Democrats to pass off a Generation Z cross-country skier as an “expert” climate change witness during a Senate Budget Committee hearing last week went downhill quickly when Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) entered the picture.

Olympic skier Gus Schumacher was invited by Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)  to testify on how climate change is impacting the $1.1 trillion outdoor recreation industry. Unfortunately, the 23-year-old was humiliated by Sen. Kennedy over his lack of knowledge of the subject at hand, and that’s putting it mildly.

Schumacher spoke with the Daily Mail after running into the Kennedy buzzsaw. He told the British tabloid that Whitehouse was “pretty cheerful” afterward and said the Democrat apologized for the drubbing he endured.

“He apologized for Senator Kennedy and mentioned that it’s not the first time he’s done that aggressive line of questioning that’s not entirely related,” Schumacher said. “I don’t think anyone from my team was expecting that approach, he did a good job of making these questions really silly.”

The “aggressive line of questioning” was asking Schumacher if he knows what carbon dioxide is and challenging his assertion that it’s a “huge part of our atmosphere.” Kennedy reminded the “expert” that it only accounts for 0.04 percent of the atmosphere.

“I’m not a professional to talk about carbon dioxide so much,” Schumacher said at one point.

“I was definitely a little bit flustered,” he told the Daily Mail. “That spoke to my inability to answer questions on CO2, but I wasn’t too red in the face.”

Kennedy also brought up some old tweets from the Olympian showcasing a hard-left attitude. In one such tweet, he claimed the “war on drugs” was intentionally created to “incarcerate black people en-masse.” In another, he called for abolishing police.

“‘I’m here as an athlete giving you my story of what I’ve seen in my field,” Schumacher told Kennedy, trying to avoid the line of questioning.

“You think we ought to abolish the police?” Kennedy asked. “Should we do that before or after we get rid of fossil fuels?”

“I’m not going to address that,” the Democrats’ expert witness replied.

In talking to the Daily Mail, Schumacher admitted that he was was feeling a little anxiety.

“At first I was nervous,” he explained. “I was just trying to diffuse it and then I was just, look, this is silly it’s a distraction.”

“On reflection I retweeted these things during the time around George Floyd’s killing and the unrest and that high emotion around that time, it was especially a show of support for the black community,” Schumacher added in a naked attempt at virtue signaling.

As for abolishing police, he appears to have had an epiphany, “I don’t know, maybe the police shouldn’t be abolished.”

Tom Tillison

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