Haley: Sure Trump believes the climate is changing

At the moment I suppose I really only have one question for the office of our Ambassador to the United Nations. With no disrespect intended, Nikki Haley does know what Donald Trump looks like, right? I mean, I think she’s fantastic and is doing a great job for us all the way around, but is there any chance she’s been talking to somebody in Washington who has a similar build and hair color and she’s just thought that maybe he was the President?

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I only ask because in an interview with Jake Tapper which will air tomorrow, Haley reportedly told him that Donald Trump absolutely believes that the climate is changing, that it’s at least partly driven by human activity and that the United States will be working to combat such changes. Could she be getting emails from Ivanka and just thinking they’re from her father? (CNN)

President Donald Trump does believe in climate change and that humans have a role in it, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview on “State of the Union.”

“President Trump believes the climate is changing and he believes pollutants are part of the equation,” Haley said Saturday, answering a central question in the wake of his decision to withdraw the country from the Paris climate accord.

Trump “knows that it’s changing and that the US has to be responsible for it and that’s what we’re going to do,” she continued, adding that withdrawing from the Paris agreement won’t change the country’s commitment to curbing climate change.

All kidding aside, if this were a one time thing we could write it off to some sort of miscommunication or misunderstanding, but this has been going on for a while now. Under the circumstances we’re back to playing the same game we’ve had to engage in on previous occasions. Does Nikki Haley know something about a new White House policy position which nobody else has been tipped off to yet? Has she talked to the President about it recently? Or is that just Nikki Haley’s position she’s sharing? If it’s the last possibility then something is seriously amiss because she’s specifically answering for the President here.

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Parts of her statement could, of course, be at least similar in tone to what Trump will come out and say next. If they’re coordinating this he might say something along the lines of noting that the planet does seem to be getting warmer, but we’re not sure how fast or how big of an effect it has. He could just as easily add that human activity could be playing a role in that and there are things we can do (without Europe telling us how) to improve on emissions without bankrupting our businesses. If it’s something like that then they’ll look like they’re most on the same page. But it’s still going to be a lot different than when he used words like hoax and fraud. And if he’s not ready to say something like that this week then Haley will appear to have wandered off the ranch again.

But as I said, this isn’t the first time. Haley said the United States absolutely supports a two state solution in the Middle East not long after Trump had already said he didn’t care if it was one or two. She once offered a very different stance toward North Korea than her boss. Same thing happened with our position on Syria back in April. Earlier that same month she told reporters that Russia was “certainly” involved in our 2016 election.

The problem here is that in the aftermath of these missed connections, it’s Haley who winds up being dinged, not her boss. If President Trump has anything specifically different to say on any of those line items he can simply tell reporters, no, that’s not my position. I don’t know what she’s talking about. Then Haley is left with egg on her face. Of course, if the actual answer isn’t too far off they can play the Different Interpretation card easily enough. The interview is already in the can and being previewed, so the only mystery left is to guess when reporters will next get a chance to ask the President about it directly (assuming Sean Spicer is still doing a disappearing act) and how much he’s willing to modify his position on the subject.

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Duane Patterson 11:00 AM | December 26, 2024
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