Don’t get Kellyanne Conway started on climate change.
In an interview Wednesday, CNN’s Chris Cuomo questioned the presidential counselor about climate change’s role in creating so-called “100-year floods” like the ones the superstorm Harvey caused. He asked whether President Donald Trump’s administration is “open to that conversation.”
“Chris, we’re trying to help the people whose lives are literally underwater, and you want to have a conversation about climate change,” she snapped, in the exchange. (See the video below.) “I mean, that is — I’m not going to engage in that right now because I work for a president and a vice president and a country that is very focused on helping the millions of affected Texans, and, god forbid, Louisianans.”
Cuomo retorted, “Imagine if we could find ways to reduce the number of these storms.”
“You’re gonna play climatologist tonight?” Conway shot back.
The two have sparred before, so it’s no surprise that the interview turned tense over a hot-button issue. After all, Conway’s boss once said, “I’m not a believer in man-made global warming.”
While scientists debate climate change’s influence on Harvey, one Cornell University climate researcher said arctic warming “likely played an important role in making Hurricane Harvey such an extreme killer storm.”
The death toll from Harvey has climbed to at least 35, Reuters reported, and at least 30,000 people have been displaced.
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