On Sunday former Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a strong critique of President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, and compared Trump's vow of negotiating an agreement that would be more "fair" for the U.S. to "O.J. Simpson saying he's going to go out and find the real killer."
Kerry was interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press" by Chuck Todd and blasted the president for his failure to take steps to protect the environment. "When Donald Trump says, well, we're going to negotiate a better deal, you know, he's going to go out and find a better deal? That's like O.J. Simpson saying he's going to go out and find the real killer," Kerry said.
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"Everybody knows he isn't going to do that because he doesn't believe in it," he added.
Kerry also explained that the Democrats need to focus on the economic message that has been rarely included in the discourse on climate change, and educate those who have been skeptics that renewable energy jobs are profitable.
"Last year, because of Paris, more money was spent on alternative, renewable and sustainable development research and implementation than on fossil fuels," Kerry said. He called Trump's argument which has largely consisted of the need for job creation a "phony economic argument that has no relationship to the reality of what's happening in the marketplace."
"We do have to do a better job of pointing out to people who this is part of the economic future," he added.
Whether or not Trump believes in the science of climate change — almost universally ruled as a fact amongst the scientific community — is still largely unclear, and Trump administration officials have either given varying responses, or fail to properly answer the question. However U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said that the president does in fact believe that the climate is changing an that pollutants play a role.
"President Trump believes the climate is changing and he believes pollutants are part of the equation," Haley told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday.
So if it's true that Trump is aware the climate is changing, why does he choose to ignore it at every turn?
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