On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would be withdrawing from the Paris climate change accord, much the chagrin of the ‘chicken little’ liberal media who declared the apocalypse was upon us. CNN’s normally mild-mannered host Jake Tapper was visibly distraught during Sunday’s State of the Union when he was railing against U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley for how the U.S. now looked to the rest of the world. But when spoke with climate alarmist/hypocrite Al Gore he was at peace.
After a fleeting exchange of pleasant hellos, Tapper swiftly pounced on Haley and demanded to know how difficult her job was going to be now that the U.S. has sided with the likes of Syria:
So, 194 countries signed the Paris climate agreement. Only three nations are not signatories to it, the United States, Nicaragua, which that the emissions standards were not tough enough, and Syria. So on the one issue that unites the world, essentially, the United States is now isolated; the proverbial skunk at the garden party. Are not concerned this will affect your ability to lead on other issues?
With a chuckle, Haley refused Tapper’s assertion. “Well, I don't think we're the skunk at the party,” she said. She recalled how the regulations President put on the country, without the lawful approval of Congress, hurt the state of South Carolina when she was the governor.
“And so what we want to do is say, look, we're a sovereign country. We're going to make sure we're looking out for the U.S. first,” she added. “We will always be a leader on the environment. That's what we do. That's who we are. But we're going to make sure we're not hurting our companies in the process. And there's a balance.” She also noted that there were clear differences between the U.S. and the other countries that didn’t agree to the accord, saying: “to put us in that category is not a real assumption.”
After a mocking laugh, Tapper spat that “I'm not the one that put us in the category, the President is!” This is in extremely sharp contrast to how Tapper played nice with Al Gore and treated him like an honored guest. “This is a criticism we hear from conservatives all the time in talking about people like you or Elon Musk or Leonardo DiCaprio, that you yourself have a large carbon footprint,” Tapper asked, teeing him up to hit his detractors who point out the hypocritically opulent lifestyles of climate alarmists.
With an unflinching face, Gore claimed he had no carbon footprint at all, saying: “Yeah well, I don't have a private jet and what the carbon emissions come from my trips on Southwest Airlines are offset. I live a carbon-free lifestyle to the maximum extent possible.” He then went on to claim that “And now we see these climate-related extreme weather events virtually every day. Every night on the news is like a hike through the Book of Revelation.”
Tapper didn’t bat an eye when Gore told his boldfaced and easily proven lie about how he lives right to his face. This helps highlight Tapper’s double standard when he rebuked Haley for saying the U.S. was going to be a “truth teller” when it came to the flaws of the Paris accord. “You say we're truth tellers. Let me show you what President Trump has tweeted about climate change. Quote: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” Are you willing to acknowledge that that is nonsense,” he demanded to know.
What makes Tapper’s hypocrisy about truth-telling even more poignant, is that when he was employed by ABC he actually reported on how Gore’s home utility bill was over $30,000. “Armed with Gore's utility bills for the last two years, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research charged Monday that the gas and electric bills for the former vice president's 20-room home and pool house devoured nearly 221,000 kilowatt-hours in 2006, more than 20 times the national average of 10,656 kilowatt-hours,” Tapper wrote at the time.
Transcript below:
CNN
State of the Union
June 4, 2017
9:25:38 AM EasternJAKE TAPPER: This is a criticism we hear from conservatives all the time in talking about people like you or Elon Musk or Leonardo DiCaprio, that you yourself have a large carbon footprint?
AL GORE: Yeah well, I don't have a private jet and what the carbon emissions come from my trips on Southwest Airlines are offset. I live a carbon-free lifestyle to the maximum extent possible. But the point is, our whole country and our entire world has to change, and are beginning to change. Today, we'll put another 110 million tons of heat-trapping pollution up there. We're treating the sky an on sewer. And now we see these climate-related extreme weather events virtually every day. Every night on the news is like a hike through the Book of Revelation.
(…)
9:30:12 AM Eastern
TAPPER: So, 194 countries signed the Paris climate agreement. Only three nations are not signatories to it, the United States, Nicaragua, which that the emissions standards were not tough enough, and Syria. So on the one issue that unites the world, essentially, the United States is now isolated; the proverbial skunk at the garden party. Are not concerned this will affect your ability to lead on other issues?
NIKKI HALEY: Well, I don't think we're the skunk at the party. I think that what we did was we watched out for our country. Look, I was a governor in South Carolina. I know how tough those regulations President Obama put on us because of the Paris agreement were on our businesses and on our industries. It directly hit our jobs. And so what we want to do is say, look, we're a sovereign country. We're going to make sure we're looking out for the U.S. first. We will always be a leader on the environment. That's what we do. That's who we are. But we're going to make sure we're not hurting our companies in the process. And there's a balance. There's clearly a difference between us and Nicaragua and us and Syria. The world knows that. So to put us in that category is not a real assumption.
TAPPER: [Mockingly laughs] I'm not the one that put us in the category, the President is! But when it comes to those agreements, the reduction in carbon emissions, that was-- every country set their own standard. Why didn't President Trump just renegotiate the United States' standards so to make it less imposing? Why withdraw?
HALEY: Why didn't President Obama get this through the Senate? There's a reason President Obama did this for an executive standpoint as opposed to going through the Senate. He knew he couldn't get it to pass. It was too onerous. The regulations were too strict. And it wasn't achievable. Even if we had stayed in the Paris agreement, and this is the part everyone needs to really think about.
If we had stayed in the Paris agreement, which the countries told us you can do it. We won't say anything. That's not who the U.S. is. One, we’re truth tellers, we're going to tell the truth. Two, it was not achievable. What President Obama submitted the U.S. to was not achievable under our standards or any other county’s standards. And then we’ve got to look at the fact we didn't want to be in violation of the agreement. And if you look at the executive order that President Trump signed that rolled back the clean power act a few months ago, that was already moving towards a pro-business situation. But what we do have is a lot of companies who care about green technology. Care about making sure that we take care of the environment, and you have a president who is very focused on clean air, clean water, and jobs.
TAPPER: You say we're truth tellers. Let me show you what President Trump has tweeted about climate change. Quote: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” Are you willing to acknowledge that that is nonsense?
(…)
TAPPER: I want to be clear, you're not willing to acknowledge that calling climate change a Chinese hoax is just a big box of crazy?
(…)
