CNN’s Chris Cuomo hit a nerve when when he asked Kellyanne Conway whether climate change might have had something to do with Tropical Storm Harvey pummeling Houston and other coastal Texas cities. After a couple of attempts to get a read on how receptive the Trump administration would be to such a conversation, Conway snapped, “Here’s the deal: You play amateur climatologist and I will play professional helper to those in need.”
After his first attempt at bringing up climate change as a possible factor in Harvey’s devastating strength (which has now parlayed into a second landfall), an incredulous Conway quipped, “Chris, we’re trying to help the people whose lives are literally underwater and you want to have a conversation about climate change? I’m not going to engage in that right now. I work for a president and a vice president and a country that is very focused on helping millions of affected Texans and, god forbid, Louisianans.”
When Cuomo pressed the subject further, Conway asked him if was “going to play climatologist tonight” and accused him of putting words into her mouth when he inferred that perhaps Conway’s combative response was itself an answer to the question. Cuomo also told Conway that she had “berated me for asking the question and made it sound as if I weren’t caring about the situation.” He added, “I think the cause of the storm matters.”
Conway responded that she was merely “exposing the irony of the conversation,” before referring to to a long list of government officials and agencies woking to help Houston. She also brought up a number of recent news stories that have detailed the specific struggles Houstonians are facing amid further rain and flooding. “I’m going to focus on them in the short term, perhaps the long term,” she explained. “That’s what we’re going to do.”
“Good, you should,” said Cuomo. “But it doesn’t mean you should do that to the exclusion of questions of why storms happen. At some point that could be part of the conversation.”
(Via CNN)