Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders presented his legislation to combat climate change in apocalyptic terms. A U.S. failure to take “decisive action in transforming our energy system and cutting greenhouse gas emissions,” he told a 2013 press conference, would mean more extreme weather, higher food prices, “greater threats of war and international instability” and “more disease and unnecessary deaths.”

Three months after sounding the alarm about climate change, Sanders held another Capitol Hill news conference. But this time, Sanders wanted to lament “the skyrocketing cost of gasoline and oil,” which he said was “causing tremendous hardship to the American consumer, small businesses, truckers, airlines and fuel dealers.” He didn’t mention that many experts say higher gas prices encourage drivers to use their cars less and buy more efficient vehicles, and encourage automakers to produce more fuel-efficient cars -- all steps that would promote Sanders’ goal of reducing carbon emissions.

“While Bernie Sanders is saying we should cut military spending to fund free college for everyone, his defense of the F-35 means that despite everything else, Sanders is still just a politician,” wrote Carl Gibson of the progressive activist group U.S. Uncut. “Rather than lying to people and saying the program is already a done deal and that there’s nothing he can do, Sanders could stand by his principles and introduce an amendment in the next National Defense Authorization Act to strip the F-35 program of its funding.”

As mayor of Burlington, he criticized the Reagan administration’s support of military action against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Yet when peace activists in the 1980s staged protests attempting to shut down General Electric’s Burlington plant, which was manufacturing weapons, Sanders did not support it, citing concern for the factory’s employees. During one protest, “ Sanders ordered the arrests of the demonstrators even though some of the guns were being shipped to the Salvadoran government for use against the Nicaraguans,” according to then-Vermont reporter Jim Condon, who is now a Democratic legislator in the state.