US President Joe Biden rebuked someone who interrupted his speech to call for greater climate protection in a speech on democracy. “If you shut up, I’ll see you after this,” Biden said Thursday in Tempe, Arizona.

Biden was in Tempe to remember Sen. John McCain, who died in 2018. During his speech, he was interrupted by a man who asked Biden why he had not declared a climate emergency, “because hundreds of people in Arizona have died.”

Biden asked the man to remain silent, but invited him to chat after his speech.

Arizona is experiencing extreme and prolonged heat. Last week, local authorities in the capital Phoenix announced that at least 289 people had died this year as a direct result of back-to-back suffocating heat waves. That number could increase significantly as another 262 deaths are being investigated as possibly weather-related.

‘Democracy in danger’
The president warned in his speech that democracy was in danger. He referred several times to former President Donald Trump and other extreme Republicans. “There is an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs of our democracy: the Maga movement,” Biden said. Maga represents Trump’s campaign slogan: ‘Make America Great Again’.

The activist posted a video of the action on X, formerly Twitter. “My conscience compels me to interrupt his speech today to ask why he has not declared a climate emergency,” he wrote. The man said he wanted to meet Biden, but the Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting the president, . and the police allegedly escorted him from the place.

The White House considered a climate emergency last year when the Inflation Reduction Act, which also includes broad climate protection measures, was temporarily delayed in the US Congress. Climate activists argue that emergency regulations could provide a legal basis for blocking oil and gas drilling, for example. (AP)