After years of largely ignoring climate change, CNN’s seven-hour marathon forum poured a Gatorade bath of climate content all over America’s head. It was neither pretty, nor fun. And Joe Biden, the Democratic Party’s presidential front-runner, emerged from it with a major metaphorical black eye, to match his physically bloodied one.

In the hours leading up to the climate forum, The Intercept reported that Biden planned to attend a fundraiser co-hosted by fossil fuel executive Andrew Goldman, who co-founded the natural gas company Western LNG. One of the forum’s attendees, a 27-year-old Ph.D. student from Northwestern University named Isaac Larkin, was armed with the story and lying in wait for the former vice president. “How can we trust you to hold these corporations and executives accountable for their crimes against humanity,” he asked him, “when we know that tomorrow you are holding a high-dollar fundraiser hosted by Andrew Goldman, a fossil fuel executive?”



Biden’s effort to defend himself stumbled from bad to worse. After initially denying that Goldman is a fossil fuel executive, Biden claimed he “didn’t realize” Goldman founded Western LNG. Biden campaign Spokesperson Symone Sanders joined the pushback on Twitter, arguing that Goldman was not an “executive” because he is “not involved” in the firm’s “day to day operation” and is “not on the board of the company, nor the board of the portfolio company.”

What @andersoncooper just said about VP Biden's fundraiser is factually incorrect. Andrew Goldman isn't a fossil fuel executive. He's not involved in the day to day operation. He's not on the board of the company, nor the board of the portfolio company. — Symone D. Sanders (@SymoneDSanders) September 5, 2019

There is a remote possibility that Biden had no idea that Goldman founded Western LNG: Biden knows Goldman from his role as an adviser in his Senate office, and as the northeast finance director of Biden’s 2008 presidential campaign. (A campaign finance director is basically the person in charge of getting rich donors to part with their money, a position that provides an easy transition to becoming a member of the wealthy donor class.)



For a moment, let’s pretend that the Biden team’s spin was correct: that Goldman is not currently doing climate crimes, leaving aside the much more urgent question of whether he’s profiting from them. What else do we know about Andrew Goldman?

