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Germany responds to Donald Trump’s debate comments
Germany is denying an assertion made by former President Donald Trump during the presidential debate Tuesday about the country’s renewable energy industry.
“You believe in things like we’re not going to frack, we’re not going to take fossil fuel, we’re not going to do things that are going to be strong, whether you like it or not,” Trump said in his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris. “Germany tried that, and within one year, they were back to building normal energy plants.”
But on Tuesday, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office decided to issue a rebuttal, echoing the former president’s language.
“Like it or not: Germany’s energy system is fully operational, with more than 50% renewables,” the Federal Foreign Office shared on X. “And we are shutting down – not building – coal & nuclear plants. Coal will be off the grid by 2038 at the latest.”
The German Foreign Office also poked at Trump for another comment he made during the debate.
“PS: We also don’t eat cats and dogs,” it concluded, referring to Trump’s debunked claim that Haitian migrants had eaten pets in Springfield, Ohio. The town’s authorities have said that there have not been credible reports about migrants targeting pets.
“Contradiction with facts and humor — that is the right answer to disinformation,” German State Minister Anna Lührmann added on Thursday about her government’s response. “As democrats, we can no longer allow ourselves to leave false statements uncommented.”
Climate change and energy policies are raised frequently during both candidates’ election campaigns. Trump also claimed that if Harris wins the election, fracking in Pennsylvania “will end on day one.”
“Fossil fuel will be dead,” Trump said. “We’ll go back to windmills, and we’ll go back to solar.”
Before she became vice president, Harris, who was a senator representing California, pushed for climate-friendly policies. “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” Harris said in 2019. But as vice president, she has changed course.
“I have not banned fracking as vice president,” Harris told Trump. “My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil.”
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, energy costs in Germany have spiked as Berlin seeks alternatives to Russian energy. The United States exported over 200 million cubic feet of liquid natural gas to Germany last year. Russian natural gas volumes in the German energy market saw a 30% decline in 2022.
“Yes, Germany is serious about the energy transition,” the German embassy in Washington said in a post on X. “Our energy system is fully operational, with > 50% renewables. Coal will be off the grid by 2038 at the latest – while we’re investing billions to create new opportunities in former coal regions.”
Germany shut down its last three nuclear power plants last year, as it plans to transition the majority of its energy consumption to renewable energy by 2050. But the country still needs “additional measures” to reach its climate targets, according to the German Environment Agency.
As president, Trump criticized Berlin’s energy policy for relying heavily on Russia. In 2019, he signed the Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act into law, which would sanction vessels participating in the construction of the Nord Stream 2, an undersea pipeline built by Russia’s state-run energy giant Gazprom.
In May 2021, the State Department waived previously imposed sanctions, but the waiver was terminated a day before Russia invaded Ukraine. In September 2022, a series of explosions, first detected by Scandinavian authorities off the Danish island of Bornholm, ruptured the pipeline. Last month, German prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian national, whom they said had resided in Poland, but he had left the country.
The U.S. denied any involvement in the attack and condemned the sabotage against the pipeline.
During the debate, Trump still attacked the Biden administration over the pipeline. “Why does Biden go in and kill the Keystone pipeline and approve the single biggest deal that Russia has ever made, Nord Stream 2? Because they’re weak, and they’re ineffective,” Trump said, asking Harris about her administration’s foreign policy.
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Paul Whelan, freed in prisoner swap with Russia, tells other American detainees: “We’re coming for you”
Washington — Nearly seven weeks after the Russians handed over Paul Whelan on a tarmac in Ankara, Turkey, the Marine veteran stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with a message for other Americans who are held abroad.
“We’re coming for you,” he told reporters Tuesday night after he met with lawmakers. “It might take time, but we’re coming.”
Whelan said he spoke with lawmakers about how the government can better support detainees after they’re released.
“We spoke about how the next person’s experience could be better,” he said. “What the government could do for the next person that’s held hostage and comes home — the care and support that other people might need, especially people that are in a worse situation. There are people coming back that lived in the dirt without shoes for three years, people that were locked up in hideous conditions for 20 years. They need support.”
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The U.S. secured Whelan’s release in August in one of the largest prisoner swaps since the end of the Cold War. The complex deal came after months of sensitive negotiations between the U.S., Russia, Germany, Slovenia, Poland and Norway.
As part of the deal, Russia released 16 prisoners while the Western countries released eight Russians. Whelan was released alongside Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a U.S. green card holder and Kremlin critic.
Whelan, who had been the longest-held American detainee in Russia, was arrested in December 2018 when he traveled to the country to attend a friend’s wedding. He was convicted of espionage in a secret trial and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
Whelan, his family and the U.S. government vehemently denied that he was a spy and accused Russia of using him as a political pawn. The U.S. government considered him to be wrongfully detained, a rare designation that put more government resources toward securing his release.
But a deal to secure his freedom was long elusive. He remained behind bars as Russia freed Marine veteran Trevor Reed and women’s basketball star Brittney Griner — both of whom were detained after Whelan’s arrest — in prisoner swaps with the U.S.
The U.S. said it pushed for his inclusion in both exchanges, but Russia refused. It led to Whelan advocating for his own release from a remote prison camp, calling government officials and journalists to make sure that he wasn’t forgotten.
When the plane carrying Whelan, Gershkovish and Kurmasheva landed in Maryland on Aug. 1, Whelan was the first to disembark. He was greeted by President Biden, who gave Whelan his American flag pin, and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Whether he likes it or not, he changed the world,” Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, told reporters Tuesday.
Whelan’s case and his family’s constant pressure on the U.S. government brought more attention to the cases of Americans who are wrongfully detained by foreign governments.
Haley said Whelan is a reminder to other Americans considering traveling to Russia that “you have a target on your back.”
Whelan said it’s been an adjustment acclimating to life back in the U.S., especially learning the latest technology like his iPhone 15.
“I was in a really remote part of Russia,” he said. “We really didn’t have much. The conditions were poor. The Russians said the poor conditions were part of the punishment. And coming back to see this sort of thing now is a bit of a shock, but it’s a good shock.”
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