Biden begins border speech by calling climate change deniers 'NEANDERTHALS': President kicks off remarks discussing wildfires and mocking Republicans instead of addressing immigration

President Joe Biden took a verbal detour during his visit to the border to tear into climate change deniers.

Biden ridiculed climate change skeptics at the bop of his high-profile visit to Brownsville, Texas, in remarks carried live on cable networks. He had just given an update on the Smokehouse Creek wildfires that have ripped through the Texas panhandle, and were spreading to Oklahoma.

That brought a refrain about all the other wildfires Biden has toured as president. 

'The idea there's no such thing as climate change. I love that, man. I love some of my Neanderthal friends who still think there's no climate change,' he said. 

'Well, my administration going to keep building on the progress we've made fighting the climate crisis,' Biden pledged.

President Joe Biden began his remarks at the border by speaking about Texas wildfire damage, then tearing into people who 'there's no such thing as climate change'

He referenced some of his tours of fire devastation, on a border trip that GOP critics were calling a 'photo-op.' That included devastating fire damage in California, Hawaii, and New Mexico, and other locations.

'I've flown over a lot of these wildfires since they've been president. And matter of fact, I've been a helicopter in the West in the Southwest and Northwest, flown over more land burned to the ground – all the vegetation gone, than this entire state of Maryland, [by] square footage.'

He said FEMA has already 'guaranteed that Texas and Oklahoma will be reimbursed for the cost of keeping folks safe.

Biden began his remarks at the border by speaking about devastating fire damage

The Smokehouse Creek Fire that has scorched 1,075,000 acres and is at 3 percent contained, making it the largest recorded wildfire in the Lone Star state

From the sky: The devastating wildfire's destructive path can be seen in this aerial photo 

Biden compared climate change deniers to Neanderthals

The Smokehouse Creek Fire is officially the largest and most devastating fire in Texas' history - as it burns through more than 1.1 million acres of land. At the same time, other parts of the Panhandle are getting buffeted by snow. 

Biden wasn't the only one who diverted during the border clash with Trump.

Trump once again raised his 2020 election fraud claims during his border visit.