Al Gore compares climate critics to Uvalde cops

Former Vice President Al Gore on Sunday compared people who question climate change to the nearly 400 police officers who waited for more than an hour in the hallway of a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school before stopping the gunman who killed 21 people, including 19 children. 

"It's time for all of us to step up," Gore told "NBC's Meet the Press."

"You know, the climate deniers are really, in some ways, similar to all of those almost 400 law enforcement officers in Uvalde, Texas, who were waiting outside an unlocked door while the children were being massacred. They heard the screams. They heard the gunshots and nobody stepped forward," Gore said. 

A Texas House investigative report on the school shooting did not place sole blame for the massacre on the inaction of law enforcement. The report stated that the shooting was not stopped due to "systemic failures and egregious poor decision-making," stemming from communication problems in the school, security failures and a relaxed response connected to a surge in illegal migrant "bailouts," in addition to problems with police response.

During the 77 minutes after the alleged gunman entered the elementary school, 376 law enforcement officers responded to the incident, waiting until the suspect was killed by a Border Patrol agent.

"God bless those families who suffered so much," Gore said, commenting on those who lost loved ones during the school shooting.

"And law enforcement officials tell us that's not typical of what law enforcement usually does," Gore told host Chuck Todd. "And confronted with this global emergency, what we're doing with our inaction, and failing to walk through the door and stop the killing is not typical of what we are capable of as human beings."

Gore went on to say that America has solutions to the problem and the nation should come together to fight climate change.

The failed democratic vice presidential candidate received heavy pushback against his comments. 

Meteorologist Joe Bastardi, known for his criticism of human-induced global warming, said that "you have to be a special kind of evil to even think this, yet alone say it."

Becker News CEO Kyle Becker wrote in an op-ed: "If Al Gore believed that ‘climate skeptics’ were akin to Uvalde police officers who did nothing while a massacre took place, then he should count himself a fellow deputy. Beyond Gore’s incendiary rhetoric about global warming, he has taken no personal action during his purported crusade that shows he takes it seriously."

Outkick reporter David Hookstead posted on Twitter that Gore's comments are "[a]solutely disgusting rhetoric. Comparing the climate to little kids being massacred is absolutely appalling."