From the moment that President Trump appointed Rick Perry as energy secretary, the jokes wouldn’t stop coming. This, of course, has much to do with the former Texas governor heading up a department that he famously wanted to eliminate, and his recent utter confusion about the simple law of supply and demand hasn’t eased the criticism. The trend shall continue after a new Washington Post that reveals how Perry was fooled by two Russian pranksters into believing he was holding an actual conversation with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman through a translator.
One wonders how this conversation happened, but it did. Audio footage of the discussion was posted by Russian news organization Vesti and runs a full 22 minutes. Not only that, but the entire conversation was a hoax that bobbed in and out of subjects that one would expect, like coal and natural gas, along with Perry’s hope that the Paris accord wouldn’t harm U.S. relations with the Ukraine. And then an unexpected topic arose — how to harness pig manure as an energy source. Perry was very interested:
Perhaps the only giveaway about the true nature of the call was a statement the “Ukrainian prime minister” made about a new biofuel invented by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, according to the Pravda Report newspaper.
The fuel was made from a mix of home-brewed alcohol and pig manure. Perry said he’d like to get more information about the “scientific development.”
There’s no question that Perry — who boasted about the “productivity” of fracking in Texas — was actually the voice on this call, and a Department of Energy spokesperson confirmed as much to the Washington Post. Further confirmation legwork has been done by VOAA News’ Bureau Chief Steve Herman, although Perry himself has not commented on the incident.
Meanwhile, two pranksters are somewhat notorious, and no one’s quite sure how or why this call took place, but it’s more fodder for the Perry joke file. Yet perhaps it will prompt a more careful vetting process in the future for the guy in charge of America’s nukes? One can only hope.
(Via Washington Post & Vesti)