Over the past few weeks wildfires have ravaged up and down the length of the west coast, killing at least 35 people and displacing many more. On Monday's MSNBC Live, the NBC politics team demonstrated a dramatic double standard. Mike Memoli repeated Biden talking points on fighting climate change like he was a paid campaign staffer. Then host Hallie Jackson and reporter Shannon Pettypiece ripped Trump for not making climate change a "priority" and pulling out of the Paris climate accords, as if this caused the wildfires.
Memoli robotically repeated instead of reported from Delaware: "I'll remind you of what Biden said in the past about climate change as an economic issue. He says President Trump hears the term climate change and thinks one word, hoax. He hears climate change and thinks of one word and that is jobs, jobs as an opportunity to build a new clean energy infrastructure."
Jackson then asked Pettypiece, "Shannon, let me talk to you about that. You're outside the White House. The president is out west. He has not made the fight against climate change a priority in his administration. What do you expect to hear from him today?"
Pettypiece warned that Trump was "retweeting a climate change skeptic who was pointing out that historically before the 20th century California was a lot dryer, and then graph comparing that to the level of drought today. Of course, that does nothing to disprove the idea that increases in carbon emissions are causing a warmer planet."
She also condemned Trump's environmental record, "You know, this is obviously something the president has not made a priority, and, of course, not made a priority, he also has taken steps to pull back a lot of regulations put in place during the Obama Administration, not to mention pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord."
Pettypiece concluded by citing polling data out of Arizona that suggests this could hurt Trump politically, but regardless of polls, how did Trump's climate stances in any way cause the wildfires? No international agreement or EPA regulation would be powerful enough to prevent three states from catching on fire to the point where the air quality, even outside the path of destruction, has at times has looked like something akin to being on Mars.
This segment was sponsored by Prevagen.
Here is a transcript from the September 14 show:
MSNBC
MSNBC Live with Hallie Jackson10:07 AM ET
MIKE MEMOLI: I mentioned, Hallie, the vice president is changing his schedule somewhat. He is going to hit the road this week to Florida tomorrow, to Minnesota later this week. He wasn't going to press the economic message. But it relates very much to what we're talking about now. I'll remind you of what Biden said in the past about climate change as an economic issue. He says President Trump hears the term climate change and thinks one word, hoax. He hears climate change and thinks of one word and that is jobs, jobs as an opportunity to build a new clean energy infrastructure, Hallie.
HALLIE JACKSON: Shannon, let me talk to you about that. You're outside the White House. The president is out west. He has not made the fight against climate change a priority in his administration. What do you expect to hear from him today?
SHANNON PETTYPIECE: Well, we got a little bit of a preview on his Twitter feed in the early hours out in Nevada where he is right now, retweeting a climate change skeptic who was pointing out that historically before the 20th century California was a lot dryer, and then graph comparing that to the level of drought today. Of course, that does nothing to disprove the idea that increases in carbon emissions are causing a warmer planet. You know, this is obviously something the president has not made a priority, and, of course, not made a priority, he also has taken steps to pull back a lot of regulations put in place during the Obama Administration, not to mention pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord. We put to this in the context of politics, one thing I want to point out is there is some poll numbers that came out recently from Arizona. A state the president will be actively campaigning in today. They asked voters about what issues do you think are most important to be talking about, for the candidates to be talking about. Fifty-three percent named climate change. The only issues above it were the economy, immigration and coronavirus. And just to give you an idea of what we could expect to hear more from the president today, have a listen to some of the back and forth that there has been on climate change from the president.
