In the lead segment of CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, host Bill Whitaker narrated a piece praising the work of California Governor Jerry Brown in standing up to President Trump on climate change. “Our country is divided between red states and blue states, a division that has intensified since the election of President Donald Trump,” he began, noting how the blue states were part of the resistance. “Most prominently, California, the country's bluest and most populous state, led by Governor Jerry Brown.”
Whitaker highlighted how Brown was taking the Trump administration to court “over health care, immigration, and air quality.” “But nothing raises more righteous passion in Jerry brown than the issue of climate change. He castigates the President for denying the science and aggravating a problem Governor Brown says is causing California to burn,” he pontificated.
The segment included clips of Brown fusing his climate change alarmism with religious undertones. “If he sounds like a Jesuit seminarian, it's because he was one, years ago,” Whitaker noted. “Now, he's a climate missionary, traveling the world, preaching the gospel of renewable energy. At the Vatican; in China, where President Xi Jinping discussed collaborating with California on cutting greenhouse gases.”
He also touted how Brown and Michael Bloomberg were undermining U.S. leadership by going to foreign climate summits claiming to represent the parts of the U.S. who say the Trump administration doesn’t speak for them. An act that would probably result in calls for hearings if it was done during a Democratic administration.
After glorifying Brown’s work on climate change, Whitaker touted what his subject had done to California. “California is booming. Under Brown, it has grown from the 9th largest economy in the world, to the 6th. It's now bigger than France, with a budget surplus of more than $7 billion,” he claimed.
“You cut the budget. You raised taxes. These days, that sounds like a prescription for political suicide,” he quipped to Brown. But Whitaker never mentioned the mass exodus of California residents and businesses seeking to live and do business in low tax states such as Texas.
The most critical part of puff piece was when Whitaker simply brushed over the state’s exploding homeless crisis. “But California's economic success has come at a cost. Housing prices are through the roof. So are the ranks of the homeless. A quarter of the country's homeless live in California,” he said. There was no mention of the San Diego hepatitis A outbreak which was caused by the homeless defecating in the streets. And it appeared that a separate outbreak was set to hit the state’s capital.
As for covering Brown’s dissenters, Whitaker only noted (with no explanation) how “California Republicans say Brown's tax hikes are irresponsible.” He then inexplicably shifted gears to talk about how California was more inclusive than the rest of “Trump’s America.” “In Trump's America, Jerry Brown's California seems far out on the frontier. California doesn't look like the rest of the country. Minorities now are the majority of the population,” he chided.
Whitaker wrapped up his Jerry Brown love-fest by fawning over the Governor’s retirement plans:
Their plan is to retire here, to this ranch, in a golden valley north of Sacramento. They're building their dream ranch house-- with solar panels, of course. (…) He told us he's going out at his peak, stepping away from the fray, on land his great-grandfather settled in the 1860s. He said he intends to be a modest rancher. He's going to unplug and unwind. It's off the grid, and way off the beaten path.
Transcript below:
CBS
60 Minutes
December 10, 2017
7:14:43 PM EasternBILL WHITAKER: Our country is divided between red states and blue states, a division that has intensified since the election of President Donald Trump. And some of the blue states are intensifying their resistance to the President. Most prominently, California, the country's bluest and most populous state, led by Governor Jerry Brown. Brown has been governor of California twice. The first time, 40 years ago. He criticizes the President on taxes. California is suing the Trump administration over health care, immigration, and air quality.
But nothing raises more righteous passion in Jerry brown than the issue of climate change. He castigates the President for denying the science and aggravating a problem Governor Brown says is causing California to burn.
[Cuts to video]
(…)
WHITAKER: This is the most destructive fire season on record in California. Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency this past week as raging wildfires, whipped by fierce Santa Ana winds and fueled by bone-dry brush, laid waste to tens of thousands of acres in southern California. The smoke plume that shrouded the Los Angeles area could be seen from space. The fires that ravaged California's famed wine country in October were the deadliest the state has ever seen. Whole neighborhoods were incinerated. Dozens of people were killed.
(…)
WHITAKER: President Trump has famously called climate change a hoax. When he pulled out of the Paris climate accord, he said this wasn't a good deal for the United States.
(…)
WHITAKER: If he sounds like a Jesuit seminarian, it's because he was one, years ago. Now, he's a climate missionary, traveling the world, preaching the gospel of renewable energy. At the Vatican; in China, where President Xi Jinping discussed collaborating with California on cutting greenhouse gases. Brown went to the global climate summit in Bonn, Germany last month. He and former New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, led a delegation of mayors and legislators representing 40 percent of the U.S. Economy. While the official U.S. delegation, sent by the white house, showed up to promote coal, Brown went to tell the world President Trump doesn't speak for all Americans.
(…)
WHITAKER: He's already weaning California off fossil fuels. To give us a glimpse of the future, Brown took us to this 62-acre solar farm near Sacramento on the site of a decommissioned nuclear power plant.
(…)
WHITAKER: California is booming. Under Brown, it has grown from the 9th largest economy in the world, to the 6th. It's now bigger than France, with a budget surplus of more than $7 billion. When you first came into office this time, California faced more than $50 billion in debt and deficits. There were headlines that California was going to be the first "failed state."
(…)
WHITAKER: You cut the budget. You raised taxes. These days, that sounds like a prescription for political suicide.
(…)
WHITAKER: But California's economic success has come at a cost. Housing prices are through the roof. So are the ranks of the homeless. A quarter of the country's homeless live in California.
(…)
WHITAKER: California is vital to the national economy. That's why Brown is so angered by the new tax overhaul legislation being pushed by House and Senate Republicans. They call it a tax cut, but Brown says by eliminating deductions for state and local taxes, it would actually increase the tax burden on high-tax blue states like California. He and other blue state governors say the bill is retaliation against Trump's opponents. Brown called it evil and divisive. Do you think the Republicans are intentionally trying to punish the blue states that didn't vote for President Trump?
(…)
WHITAKER: But California Republicans say Brown's tax hikes are irresponsible. In Trump's America, Jerry Brown's California seems far out on the frontier. California doesn't look like the rest of the country. Minorities now are the majority of the population. It doesn't act like the rest of the country. The state voted to legalize recreational marijuana starting in January, will soon offer a third gender choice on drivers' licenses. Hillary Clinton trounced President Trump here by more than four million votes. It seems that California is way out of step with the rest of the country.(…)
WHITAKER: A go-it-alone bachelor nearly all of his adult life, Jerry Brown now has a partner to share his life: Anne Gust Brown, a former executive at the Gap. They married in 2005. Their plan is to retire here, to this ranch, in a golden valley north of Sacramento. They're building their dream ranch house-- with solar panels, of course. It's off the grid, and way off the beaten path. The governor, and Colusa, showed us around. This is beautiful, governor. This is pretty steep.
(…)
WHITAKER: He told us he's going out at his peak, stepping away from the fray, on land his great-grandfather settled in the 1860s. He said he intends to be a modest rancher. He's going to unplug and unwind. Do you think this man sitting next to you is going to be content puttering around?
(…)
