Kerry's 'better choices' comment on climate job losses opens door for GOP to pounce

Sometimes seemingly insignificant moments in politics have a way of taking on a life all their own.

George H.W. Bush's momentary glance of his watch during a presidential debate, Bill Clinton's famous hedge on the meaning of the word "is" during a sex scandal, and Marco Rubio's water break during a State of the Union response all left indelible marks.

Biden administration climate czar John Kerry may have created his own such moment on Wednesday with a seemingly passing response to a question about American oil and gas workers losing their jobs to the administration's new regulatory agenda.

"What President Biden wants to do," Kerry told reporters at the White House, "is make sure those folks have better choices." He added he believed oil and gas workers had been fed a "false narrative" about why their jobs were disappearing and could one day make solar panels if retrained. He insisted "no two people are more — in this room —are more concerned about it" than he and President Biden.

Within hours, Republicans and commentators had turned the phrase around mockingly, suggesting the former senator and secretary of state was elitist, callous and blaming oil and gas workers for making bad choices that required they fend for themselves until President Biden can create new jobs for them.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), whose state has a massive oil and gas industry, slammed Kerry during a Just the News policy forum Wednesday evening for his "condescension."  

"Today John Kerry did a press conference where he said, 'Well, they need to make better choices,'" Cruz said. "I don't think the American people need rich, out-of-touch Democrats lecturing them that their job, their livelihood, is going to be obliterated and if they would just listen to the their intellectual and moral betters in the Democrat party they would choose to do something different with their lives."

One of Cruz's Senate GOP colleagues jumped into the action as well.

"John Kerry — who flies in private jets, owned a 76-foot yacht and several mansions —has the carbon footprint of a small nation," Sen. Tom Cotton tweeted. "Yet he tells energy workers to 'make solar panels' when the Biden administration kills their jobs."

Commentators and journalists had their own take.

"I'd like to help John Kerry make 'better choices' for his career," tweeted author and Wall Street Journal journalist Abigail Shrier, no stranger to controversy among liberals after writing a recent book on transgender issues.

Here are Kerry's full remarks so you can decide for yourself:

Whether a gaffe or an overblown twist of his words, Kerry's episode Wednesday is a clear marker Republicans are going to be policing the words of Team Biden aggressively, just like Democrats scoured Donald Trump's tweets often as president.