Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a 2020 Democratic White House hopeful, defended some comments that he made in the first Democratic primary debate, during which he called President Trump the "biggest threat" to the United States.

"It's the right answer - he is the greatest threat to American security for multiple reasons," Inslee told Hill.TV on Thursday.

"He's a threat to our ability to keep our planet from burning up because of the climate crisis," he continued. "He's what stands between Americans and clean energy jobs. He's a threat in the Mideast because of his irrational, chaotic Iran policy, where we had an agreement."

Inslee, who has made climate change a centerpiece of his campaign, mentioned the issue within the first minute of Wednesday's debate when he criticized Trump for failing to embrace wind turbines.

"Donald Trump is simply wrong. He says they cause cancer. I say they cause jobs," Inslee said.

Still, when later asked to identify the single greatest geopolitical threat facing the U.S., Inslee, who has called for an entire debate focused on climate change, named a different foe.

"The biggest threat to the security of the United States is Donald Trump," Inslee said at the event. "No question about it."

Some lawmakers and advocates, meanwhile, have criticized the first debate for not dedicating enough time to climate change and asking more substantive questions about the growing issue.

Debate moderators spent less than 15 minutes asking various candidates about issues related to their climate action plans over the course of the two-hour debate.

During an interview after the Wednesday night debate, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) criticized the type of questions that were asked by the moderators, emphasizing that the issue is a far-reaching problem.

"I don't think that we are discussing climate change the way we need to be discussing climate change," she said on "The Late Show with Steven Colbert."

"It is such a huge broad systemic issue and you can't just say, 'Is Miami gonna exist in 50 years?' We need to say what are you going to do about this," she added.

Ocasio-Cortez become a champion of progressive climate initiatives like the one put forth by environmental advocacy group Sunrise Movement, which is known as the Green New Deal.

-Tess Bonn