Watch Mike Pence get laughed at for embarrassing himself on climate change
Pence went on CNN to lie about climate change, but Jake Tapper wasn’t having it.
Mike Pence lied his way through an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday — but Tapper wouldn’t let him get away with it.
Much of Pence’s CNN “State of the Union” interview consisted of him denying that climate change is real and Tapper pushing back incredulously at Pence’s false claims. Even when faced with evidence to the contrary, Pence always stuck to his anti-science guns.
After Tapper repeatedly asked Pence whether he thought climate change was a threat, Pence responded: “I think the answer to that is going to be based upon the science.” Tapper dug in, pointing out that “the science says yes.” Then Pence tossed out a shopworn conservative lie — that there’s “many” in the scientific community who “debate” the science of global warming.
Tapper pointed out to Pence that the “science community in your own administration” — including scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — said that climate change was a threat.
Pence simply pivoted and reverted to insisting that “we are not going to raise any utility rates.”
Pence went on to lie about air and water quality in the United States, which Tapper also called him out for. He declared that “America has the cleanest air and water in the world.”
At that point, Tapper had apparently had enough. He laughed and said: “That’s not true. We don’t have the cleanest air and water in the world. We don’t.”
Unsurprisingly, Pence is dead wrong and Tapper is absolutely right. While we’re tied with nine other countries for top marks on water quality, we’re 10th in the world for air quality and plummet to 83rd in the world for air pollution.
Pence also tried to tell Tapper that the United States was “making progress” on reducing carbon emissions, another complete lie. Tapper reminded Pence that in fact, Trump’s administration had just rolled back the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which sought to limit coal plant carbon emissions. Trump gutted that rule and issued a new one that cuts carbon emission from power plants by “less than half” of what scientists have said is necessary to avoid “catastrophic global warming.”
Pence’s answer? “Turn back to nuclear energy, clean energy.”
Obama worked to help the nation turn to clean energy and stave off the coming climate crisis. In Trump’s anti-science administration, they’re letting coal companies run the show and removing any real incentive for companies to limit emissions. Pence has no shame about lying to cover for this administration’s actions.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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