Donald Trump spouted incoherent anti-scientific nonsense on climate change at length with New York Times reporters and editors Tuesday — and they totally fell for it.
Ignoring most of what he actually said, the Times ran a story, “Trump, in Interview, Moderates Views but Defies Conventions,” which opens, “President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday tempered some of his most extreme campaign promises … pledging to have an open mind about climate change.” (Emphasis added.)
Why does the Times say Trump has an “open mind” on climate? Because Trump said he has an “open mind” on climate. In fact, he said it six times in the span of a few minutes.
Pay no attention to the hardcore climate denier that Trump named his chief White House strategist, the hardcore climate denier Trump put in charge of the EPA transition (and who is on the shortlist to run the EPA), the climate action opponent Trump named as his Chief of Staff, the fossil fuel executives and lobbyists overseeing his transition for the departments of Energy and Interior, and the conservative Supreme Court judge he can name who would be the fifth vote to block the EPA’s modest domestic climate plan.
And, whatever you do, pay no attention to what else Trump said in that interview (transcript here). Here he is on climate science:
“It’s a very complex subject. I’m not sure anybody is ever going to really know…. they say they have science on one side but then they also have those horrible emails that were sent between the scientists…. Terrible. Where they got caught, you know, so you see that and you say, what’s this all about. I absolutely have an open mind.”
Seriously. He has an open mind, but he doubts scientists will ever know the truth about climate change, not to mention those “terrible” emails (which were in fact a true nothingburger, as seven independent inquiries concluded).
Here is Trump speaking to columnist Tom Friedman about climate deniers:
But a lot of smart people disagree with you. I have a very open mind. And I’m going to study a lot of the things that happened on it and we’re going to look at it very carefully. But I have an open mind.
Here is Trump explaining his view of the superstorms (like Sandy) that have hit New York City (Arthur Sulzberger Jr is the publisher):
SULZBERGER: Well, since we’re living on an island, sir, I want to thank you for having an open mind. We saw what these storms are now doing, right? We’ve seen it personally. Straight up.
FRIEDMAN: But you have an open mind on this?
TRUMP: I do have an open mind. And we’ve had storms always, Arthur.
SULZBERGER: Not like this.
TRUMP: You know the hottest day ever was in 1890-something, 98. You know, you can make lots of cases for different views. I have a totally open mind.
We’ve always had storms. And some day in the 1890s century was the hottest day ever? No, it actually wasn’t — and in any case it is the global trend that matters. As the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies recently tweeted:
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