Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy gave MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell an earful on Tuesday during a heated back-and-forth over climate change.

It began when Ramaswamy said fewer people die today from climate disasters due to the abundance of fossil fuels.

“I can also tell you today, there’s a hard fact, none of these things are disputed — eight times as many people die of cold temperatures than die of warm ones. The right answer to all temperature-related deaths is more plentiful, abundant access to fossil fuels.”

But, as Ramaswamy continued on about carbon emissions, Mitchell attempted to interrupt throughout:

RAMASWAMY: The Earth is covered by more green surface area today than it was half a century or a century ago because carbon dioxide is plant food. And carbon dioxide as a percentage of the atmosphere, is still at a relative low through human history. Those are hard facts. And I think we have to acknowledge those when having this debate.

MITCHELL: There’s a hard fact of the hurricane that is now approaching. The mayor, three generation St. Petersburg resident, says he has never seen anything like this, the ocean warming. But let me move on to some —

RAMASWAMY: Andrea, may I respectfully offer a response to that? And I mean this with due respect. If someone on the other side were an uneducated person from Arkansas who didn’t go to college and offered one weather event as an anecdote to support climate change, you would laugh them off the stage as a rube for saying they don’t follow data. The same shoe has to fit the other foot. Follow the actual data!

MITCHELL: I’m not talking about, I’m not talking about one person’s opinion. We talk to professors, academics.. —

RAMASWAMY: You literally just quoted one person’s opinion! With due respect, that’s exactly what you just quoted. And I think that that’s what’s driving this false narrative as opposed to the facts I’m citing.

MITCHELL: OK, OK. And Dr. Michael Mann and other professionals in this field. But let’s move on…

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.

The post Vivek Ramaswamy Steamrolls Andrea Mitchell in Heated Exchange on Climate: ‘Follow The Actual Data!’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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