Environmental groups want moderators of the first presidential debate of 2024 to get former President Donald Trump on the record about what promises he made to oil industry leaders in exchange for their support.
In a letter Thursday to CNN journalists Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, nine organizations requested they ask Trump next week about a meeting that took place at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this year between himself and top oil executives.
At that meeting, according to people familiar with the discussions, Trump said he would overturn key components of President Joe Biden’s environmental agenda. He suggested oil and gas leaders give him $1 billion in campaign support.
“$1 billion is an exorbitant amount of cash (in fact it is more than 150,000x the legal maximum a candidate for president can solicit from an individual),” the advocates wrote, “and voters deserve to hear exactly what Trump promised Big Oil CEOs.”
