Biden Tells Blue Collar Workers to 'Learn How to Program'

Leah Barkoukis | December 31, 2019 8:03 AM

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden told miners they need to look for “jobs of the future” when he spoke about moving away from the use of fossil fuels during a campaign event in New Hampshire on Monday.

“Anybody who can go down 3,000 feet in a mine can sure as hell learn to program as well," Biden said. "Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program, for God's sake!"

But Biden returns to the same point: "Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program, for God's sake!"
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) December 30, 2019

Biden’s comment to blue collar workers came one day after he said fossil fuel executives should be thrown in prison for polluting the environment.

"Put them in jail," he said. "I'm not joking about this."

.@JoeBiden on fossil fuel execs: “We should put them in jail” for pollution pic.twitter.com/OLqZMwi4E5
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) December 29, 2019

Earlier this month the former vice president made it clear he would have no problem eliminating hundreds of thousands of blue collar jobs to attain a greener economy.

“Vice President Biden, I’d like to ask you, three consecutive American presidents have enjoyed stints of explosive economic growth due to oil and gas production,” Tim Alberta said during the Dec. 19 Democratic debate. “As president would you be willing to sacrifice some of that growth, even knowing potentially that it could displace thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of blue collar workers in the interest transitioning to that greener economy?”