The post quickly went viral, drawing criticism from prominent social media users and prompting a fact-check response. In the face of the backlash, Khalil eventually deleted the post and made her account private.
The 4.8 magnitude earthquake, which was felt in New York, New Jersey, and other northeastern U.S. states, prompted Khalil to post on social media, "I experienced my first earthquake in NJ. We never get earthquakes. The climate crisis is real. The weirdest experience ever."
The post rapidly gained traction, amassing millions of views within hours, largely due to high-profile accounts sharing it, often to mock the claim. Among the critics was GOP Congressman Dan Crenshaw of Texas, who responded, "Holy crap. I was just joking about people blaming climate change and then this genius pops up. A Senate candidate no less!"
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Conservative commentator Paul Szypula also weighed in, stating, "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."
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Pro-Trump influencer "Brick Suit" added to the criticism, writing, "Christina Amira Khalil, a U.S. Senate candidate from New Jersey, blocked me after I asked her to explain her position that today's earthquake in New Jersey was caused by ‘the climate crisis.’ What a snowflake."
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Kyle Mann, Editor-In-Chief of The Babylon Bee, humorously commented, "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."
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Conservative author Carmine Sabia further ridiculed Khalil's claim, stating, "The hilarious part is, she’s doubling down on this climate, change and earthquake link with links to stories. Earthquakes have been happening for billions of years. But now it’s the climate. I keep telling you these people are not serious. Pay no attention to them."
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A right-wing influencer account "The Rabbit Hole" observed, "Random earthquakes can be attributed to climate change but we can’t point out the obvious connection between crime rates rising in 2020 to depolicing movements like BLM."
Khalil's post also received an official "Community Note" fact-check, which clarified, "NJ is located near a fault line, and has often experienced earthquakes."
In response to the widespread mockery, Khalil posted, "Pretty cool, I upset a lot of bots." However, she later deleted the post and made her account private. Fox News Digital reached out to Khalil for comment but received no response.
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