Trump’s video montage of Biden’s fracking ban comments viewed 11 million times

Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, dismisses president’s attacks, saying Trump 'likes to take everything out of context’

Donald Trump moved to capitalise on the confusion surrounding presidential rival Joe Biden’s statements on fracking in the wake of the final presidential debate on Thursday.  

The president tweeted a fragmented video montage of Mr Biden and running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, being critical of fracking and fossil fuels. 

The clip has racked up 11.8 million views since being posted 16 hours ago on Twitter. 

Hydraulic fracturing —  fracking — the controversial drilling method for oil and gas has become a campaign flashpoint in 2020. It’s particularly important in the prized swing state of Pennsylvania, the second-largest producer of natural gas in the US behind only Texas, which Mr Trump won in 2016.

On Thursday, Mr Trump repeatedly badgered the vice president saying that Mr Biden had said that he would ban fracking. The president has thrown his campaign behind the sector.

“I never said I oppose fracking,” Mr Biden responded.

"We need other industries to transition to get to ultimately a complete zero emissions by 2035," he added, pointing to technologies that would capture emissions from fracking.

A fact-check by CNN shows that in the past, Mr Biden has made conflicting statements on fracking that his campaign has later sought to clarify. 

During the back and forth with Mr Trump, the former VP said: “ I said, no fracking and/or oil on federal land.”

Mr Biden’s presidential plan to tackle climate change includes “banning new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters”. Fracking operations are carried out largely on private lands.

Senator Harris also clarified her running mate’s fracking remarks from the debate, saying he won’t ban the drilling method during a campaign stop in Atlanta on Friday. 

She dismissed the president’s attacks, saying Mr Trump “likes to take everything out of context”.

A White House report released this week states that the fracking industry in Pennsylvania employs 26,000  people and supports 322,600 jobs. 

But the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, which produced the report, referenced a Pittsburgh City Paper article that points to how Mr Trump has wildly inflated the size of the fracking industry.

The article, titled “Trump inflates Pennsylvania fracking job figures by 3500 percent” said that president claimed at a campaign rally in September that there are 940,000 natural-gas jobs in the state — a “gross exaggeration”.

The Pennsylvania news publication added: “Since 2018, the fracking industry has struggled, as gas prices remain low. In the Pittsburgh region, hundreds of jobs have been lost, and large fracking companies are divesting from the area.”

AP contributed to this report