Liberals shame Trump for 'betraying the country' by withdrawing from the Paris Agreement

Liberals swiftly decried President Trump's announcement Thursday that he intends to fully withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) released a statement calling Trump's decision to bail on the global pact to battle climate change an "abdication of American leadership and an international disgrace." Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) accused Trump of "betraying the country, in the service of Breitbart fake news, the shameless fossil fuel industry, and the Koch brothers' climate denial operation," while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) described the decision as "a devastating failure of historic proportions." "If you truly believe in improving the Paris Agreement, you don't back out — you work with our allies and partners around the world," Schumer said in a statement.

The non-profit environmental organization Sierra Club was similarly brutal, deeming Trump's decision to withdraw "one of the most ignorant and dangerous actions ever taken by any president."

Trump, in a Rose Garden speech Thursday afternoon, said he made the decision to free the U.S. from the "draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes."

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