“I reacted to what I felt.”

Former Vice President Al Gore made his views on the Trump administration clear after Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick spoke to business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, January 20th.

During the annual forum dinner in Davos, Switzerland, Lutnick reportedly made combative remarks that offended many people in the room, according to witnesses who spoke to the Financial Times.

The newspaper reported that Lutnick, who tried to speak “negatively” about Europe and argue that the world should prioritize coal over renewable energy, was met with “extensive heckling” inside the venue, and event organizer BlackRock CEO Larry Fink asked people to calm down. According to the FT, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde was among the guests who left the room.

According to the British newspaper, one executive who was present described the dinner as “tense,” while another described it as “loud and painful.” Mr. Gore was among the hecklers, two witnesses said, and has long argued that the world needs to take stronger steps to combat climate change.

In a statement to PEOPLE about the FT report, Gore told PEOPLE that he “sat and listened” to Lutnick’s speech and “did not interrupt in any way” while he spoke.

“It’s no secret that I think this administration’s energy policy is insane,” says Gore, 77. “And at the end of his speech, I responded to my feelings, and so did several others.”

The US Commerce Department denied the FT’s report, saying, “Only one person booed, and that was Al Gore.” People has contacted DOC for further comment.

At a forum the next day, President Donald Trump, 79, spoke about Europe’s biggest concerns, calling for “immediate negotiations” for the United States to acquire Greenland, but tempered his remarks to suggest he had no intention of using force to acquire NATO territory.

“There is no need to use force. I don’t want to use force. I will not use force,” he said.

After Trump delivered his lengthy remarks, Gore also expressed his dissatisfaction with the president, telling reporters, “I don’t want to be the fact-checker who has to scrutinize that speech.”

Mr. Gore has been an outspoken critic of Mr. Trump during his second term as president. In a fiery speech at San Francisco Climate Week last April, the former vice president drew similarities between the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans and early Nazi Germany.

“By the way, we have already seen how populist authoritarian leaders have used immigrants as scapegoats to fan the flames of xenophobia and fuel their rise to power,” Gore said at the time. “And the pursuit of power is what this is all about. The Constitution, written by our Founders, was designed to protect us from the same threat that Donald Trump is.”

Gore is not the only former US leader to speak out against the Trump administration.

In his first speech since leaving the White House, President Joe Biden expressed his dissatisfaction with the administration: “This administration has done so much damage and so much destruction in less than 100 days. It’s breathtaking that it happened so quickly.”

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Former President Barack Obama joined in the criticism, targeting the Trump administration and its treatment of the press in a speech at Hamilton College last April.

President Obama laughed and told the audience, “Imagine if I had done this.” “Imagine if I had pulled the Fox News credentials out of the White House press corps. You’re laughing, but this is actually happening.”