A candidate running for Senate in New Jersey was ruthlessly goaded on social media after claiming the “climate crisis” was to blame for the Friday earthquake that rocked the tri-state area.
Green Party member Christina Amira Khalil shared the controversial message just minutes after the quake, which was the strongest temblor to strike near the Big Apple in 140 years.
“I experienced my first earthquake in NJ. We never get earthquakes. The climate crisis is real. The weirdest experience ever,” Khalil wrote on X.
The post was only up for a few hours before the congressional hopeful deleted it — but not before it garnered millions of views and an X “Community Note” fact-checking her claims.
Dozens of other high-profile politicians and commentators shared Khalil’s tweet, mocking the politician for linking movement in the earth’s crust to climate change in the atmosphere.
“Holy crap I was just joking about people blaming climate change and then this genius pops up. A Senate candidate no less!” Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas wrote in response to the since-deleted tweet.
“Senate candidate Christina Amira Khalil just said that ‘climate crisis’ caused today’s earthquake in New Jersey. Climate doesn’t cause earthquakes — they’re caused by tectonic plates shifting. This woman is a moron,” said Conservative commentator Paul Szypula.
Kyle Mann, the editor-in-chief of satirical outlet The Babylon Bee, piled on, writing: “Gonna have a call with my Babylon Bee writers to figure out how we failed to come up with ‘the earthquake was caused by climate change’ before the libs did.”
Khalil — who is running to take over embattled Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez’s seat — has since replaced her controversial tweet with one simply detailing her shock at experiencing the rare earthquake in New Jersey.
“My entire life in NJ, I have never experienced anything like this,” she wrote.
Follow The Post’s coverage on the NYC and tri-state earthquake
According to NASA, there is no link between climate change and earthquakes, which are simply caused by tectonic plates colliding into one another below Earth’s surface.
“We know that most earthquakes occur far beneath Earth’s surface, well beyond the influence of surface temperatures and conditions,” Alan Buis of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in 2019.
“We know the statistical distribution of earthquakes is approximately equal across all types of weather conditions. Myth busted.”
Khalil wasn’t the only politician to catch heat over baseless claims regarding the earthquake.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) blamed the tremors on America’s declining morality — stating it was a warning sent by the heavens.
“God is sending America strong signs to tell us to repent. Earthquakes and eclipses and many more things to come. I pray that our country listens,” Greene wrote.
The conservative’s post was accompanied by an X “Community Note” pointing out that there are about 1700 earthquakes in the US every year and that solar eclipses occur approximately every 18 months.
