In this week’s fact-checking video, CNN’s Jake Tapper looks at three climate-related claims President Donald Trump made in an interview with the Washington Post.
Video: Trump’s Climate Claims to the Post
Issues: climate change
The Science Trump Got Wrong in the Post Interview
In a Nov. 27 interview with the Washington Post, President Donald Trump made a series of inaccurate statements. He questioned the cause of climate change, praised a nonexistent method for wildfire prevention and even recycled a long-debunked news story from the 1970s.
America Not ‘Cleanest We’ve Ever Been’
In response to a question about climate change, President Donald Trump falsely claimed that the United States was “the cleanest we’ve ever been.” Data from a variety of sources show that while the country has made strides in the last decade, its carbon dioxide, or CO2, emissions are far from their lowest point.
The president’s comments came on Nov. 26 after he was asked by a journalist about the latest National Climate Assessment.
Trump Repeatedly Errs on California Wildfires
Over the past two weekends, as two major wildfires devastated communities in Northern and Southern California, President Donald Trump has inaccurately blamed the state’s forest management practices for the blazes. He has also wrongly said that raking — a method he attributed to Finland — could have solved the problem.
Clearing Up the Facts Behind Trump’s ‘Clean Coal’ Catchphrase
President Trump loves to extol “clean coal.” But an exceedingly small amount of coal is used in a way that most people would consider clean.
Trump Wrong on Climate Change, Again
In two recent interviews, President Donald Trump said he is not convinced that climate change is due to human activity, and he suggested that any changes will reverse themselves — two ideas that lack scientific backing.
How Potent Is Methane?
Two federal agencies this month took steps that would allow the oil and gas industry to release more methane, a greenhouse gas, into the environment. Critics warned that methane is more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping the Earth’s heat, but some gave wildly divergent figures to describe how much more potent.
Scientist Schools Congressmen on Climate
During a recent hearing on the role of innovation in addressing climate change, several Republicans made faulty claims about the climate, past and present.
NextGen Climate Action Committee
NextGen Climate Action Committee is a liberal environmental advocacy organization founded by San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer.
Smith’s Error-Filled Climate Op-Ed
In an op-ed for Fox News, Rep. Lamar Smith, the chairman of the House science committee, made a host of false and misleading claims about climate change and related issues.