President Joe Biden threw some shade at Donald Trump and got laughs from business leaders at a meeting earlier this week.
Biden was hosting a roundtable discussion with energy executives when he brought up Trump’s War on Windmills. Trump has made numerous bizarre statements about the turbines, including that they produce noise that causes cancer.
Related: Pete Buttigieg tells Donald Trump to “show some goddamned respect”
“Are you getting less resistance when you talk about wind and the windmills?” Biden asked the executives. “I know they cause cancer.”
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“Bad joke. I shouldn’t kid about that,” he said as they laughed at the Trump reference.
Biden: Are you getting less resistance when you talk about wind and the windmills? I know they cause cancer. Bad joke. I shouldn’t kid about that pic.twitter.com/CuWX2XH73P
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 9, 2022
Biden brought up Trump’s hatred of windmills during the 2020 presidential campaign, saying in an October 2020 debate: “He thinks wind causes cancer. Windmills.”
On television, Pete Buttigieg said that Biden “drew blood” with the joke by attacking Trump’s “crazy uncle approach” to policy.
According to Sky News, Trump’s beliefs about windmills and cancer come from unfounded concerns about infrasound, or sound waves that are too deep to be perceived by humans. Public health professor Simon Chapman said that the belief that turbines cause diseases is a “psycho genic condition”; that is, people who live near them talk about the illnesses so much that they convince themselves that they have them.
“People who don’t like wind farms can often be annoyed and worried by them: some might even worry themselves sick,” he said.
