The 23-year-old skier presented by Democrats as an “expert witness” at a Senate hearing on climate change has revealed that the party apologized to him for the attack at the hands of Republican John Kennedy.
Olympic hopeful Gus Schumacher was invited by Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse to testify as the Budget Committee considered the impact of climate change on the $1.1 trillion outdoor recreation industry.
But he struggled to answer basic questions and couldn’t remember his tweets in which he claimed the war on drugs was designed to imprison black people and called for the abolition of the police.
In an atrocious exchange, Kennedy corrected his claim that carbon dioxide is a “large part of our atmosphere”, pointing out that it makes up 0.04 per cent, but the skier told Dailymail.com that Whitehouse was “pretty cheerful ” after.
“He apologized for Senator Kennedy and mentioned that this is not the first time he has pursued that aggressive line of questioning that is not entirely related,” Schumacher added.
Democrats invited US Olympic skier Gus Schumacher to the Budget Committee to answer questions on ‘Recreation at Risk: The Nature of Climate Costs’
Schumacher (right) was invited to speak by Democratic Budget Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse (left) and appeared alongside Hilary Hutcheson, a fishing guide and outfitter from Montana.
“I don’t think anyone on my team expected that approach; you did a good job of making these questions really dumb.”
The three-time junior gold medalist was representing the Protect Our Winters lobby group after previous testimony from economists, scientists, medical professionals, insurance and investment executives.
But it all went downhill for Schumacher as he tried to defend himself from Kennedy’s questioning, which began with a question about what carbon dioxide is.
‘I went to high school, but carbon dioxide is a gas,’ the skier told him
“I’m not a professional to talk so much about carbon dioxide.”
But Kennedy demanded an explanation of the gas’s role in climate change.
“Carbon dioxide is what I see as a gas that exists in our atmosphere,” Schumacher explained.
‘Is it an important part of our atmosphere?’ Kennedy asked innocently.
“It’s a big part of our atmosphere,” the skier insisted.
“It’s a very small part of our atmosphere,” the senator said.
‘OK that’s fine. But if. I don’t know. What specifically are you asking? Schumacher responded.
“You said we need to reduce carbon emissions,” Kennedy reminded him. “First I’d like to know if you know what it is.”
The 23-year-old said climate change has “dramatically altered the conditions for winter sports.”
The commentary on his performance on the committee was relentless on social media.
“I was definitely a little nervous,” Schumacher told Dailymail.com afterwards.
“That spoke to my inability to answer questions about CO2, but I wasn’t too red.”
But Kennedy wasn’t done with the young skier by questioning him about other issues he had weighed in on, including a 2020 retweet that claimed the “war on drugs” was intentionally created to incarcerate Black people en masse.”
‘Who intentionally created the ‘war on drugs’ to imprison black people?’ Kennedy demanded.
Schumacher said he did not remember the tweet, adding: “I am here as an athlete telling you my story of what I have seen in my field.”
The senator then asked about a tweet calling for the police to be “abolished” and replaced with a new service.
—Do you think we should 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 skier responded.
“At first I was nervous,” Schumacher explained later, “I was just trying to diffuse it and then I thought, look, this is nonsense, this is a distraction.”
‘On reflection, I retweeted these things during the time surrounding the murder of George Floyd and the riots and that great emotion at the time, it was especially a show of support for the black community.
“I don’t know, maybe the police shouldn’t be abolished.”
As the exchange went viral, some observers wondered how he could have “witnessed firsthand the profound alterations to our natural landscapes” that he claimed at 23 years old.
“I’m not an expert but I care, I’ve lived with it, what I hear from my parents and what I’ve experienced as a child, I trust those experiences,” he said.
“And the overwhelming evidence is that we live in unstable times and things are different.”
And he admitted that he was surprised that he had not been questioned about the impact of skiing on the environment.
“That’s what we think a Republican senator could do, it’s pretty obvious,” he said.
“I have to fly to Europe to train and it’s something I’ve struggled with, but a lot of people travel for their jobs and I’m only going to be able to compete at this level for a short time, and I think pushing for systemic change is the right thing to do.” .
And the young skier seemed unfazed by the attack at the hands of the veteran senator.
Schumacher said he has no regrets about his appearance before the panel last Wednesday despite the thousands of abusive messages he has since received online.
He says he will continue to campaign on the issue and says his family and friends have “fully supported” him in his effort.
“A lot of the people I know and care about have encouraged me on how I handled it, not being too nervous and staying calm was something they appreciated,” he added.
“It is a difficult situation”.