The president made that claim during a speech Wednesday to U.S. Air Force personnel stationed in Great Britain:
Biden: "When I went over to the tank [a secure area] in the Pentagon when I was first was elected vice president with President Obama, the military sat us down and let us know what the greatest threats facing America were, the greatest physical threats. This is not a joke. You know what the Joint Chiefs told us the greatest physical threat facing America was? Global warming."
While in Europe, Biden plans to speak to the leaders of America's allies about a unified approach to combating climate change – an issue his administration has assigned high priority since Day 1 of taking office.
One News Now spoke with Bob Maginnis, a senior fellow for national security at the Family Research Council and a retired U.S. Army officer.
"[The president] said he went into the tank with the Joint Chiefs and that [they] told him the greatest physical threat facing America was climate change. Well, I seriously doubt that," Maginnis offered. "And yet the chiefs aren't going to come out and say 'No, that wasn't the case.' So, we have no way of validating whether that's a lie or it's the truth."
He also suggests the president may have violated security protocol: "The fact that Mr. Biden claims that he went into the tank … well, you don't talk about things you say in the tank – but whatever."
Maginnis admits some cyclical climate change is occurring in the Arctic and that the U.S. needs to respond.
"Yes, we are refocusing efforts in the Arctic," he acknowledged. "We're doing more with our forces in Alaska – and I suspect we'll try to continue to represent our best interests.
"We are an Arctic nation, given the coast line in Alaska," he continued. "I have personally been there and I had defense activities that I did while I was there. So yes, climate has shifted up there – but we've seen this is the past and we're likely to see it in hundreds of years again."
In fact, Maginnis adds, "even though they say [the science on climate change is] settled, it's not."
