Friday on CNN’s “Newsroom,” former Vice President Al Gore said the “general notion” of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey’s (D-MA) so-called Green New Deal has “huge majority support.”

Gore said, “I think it’s an inspirational goal that makes it possible for large majorities to come together in a common demand that the U.S. change its approach.”

He continued, “I’ll tell you what it reminds me of, years ago when I was working on the issue of nuclear arms control, there was a movement called the Nuclear Freeze Movement, and it was criticized as being naive, and experts said that it had elements that were unrealistic. But 75 percent of the American people said, ‘We’re in favor of a nuclear freeze.’ And the particulars didn’t all get enacted, but it served as a mechanism for the American people to move their political leaders, including Ronald Reagan, who started off in the campaign of 1980 talking about the evil empire and talking about massive build-ups of nuclear weapons and ended up advocating a nuclear zero initiative with Gorbachev in the then Soviet Union. So I think the Green New Deal is a bit like that. ”

He added, “We can argue about the particulars and specifics as it comes into form, but the general notion—solve the climate crisis and create millions of new jobs while we’re doing it—that’s got a huge majority support and it is now emerging as a mandate from the American people.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN