Fox’s flagship “news” program commemorated Earth Day by hosting proud climate denier and former Trump administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to comment on President Joe Biden’s global climate summit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Pompeo, a Fox contributor, began by criticizing the Biden administration’s decision to reenter the Paris climate agreement, a landmark international treaty to combat climate change and adapt to its effects. Pompeo deemed Biden’s decisions “a real threat to the United States of America” and argued that a “climate change first” strategy is “not good for American security.” His statement runs counter to decades of opinions from Pentagon, military, and international experts who unequivocally state that climate change is a major national security threat.
In 2018, though the Trump administration tried to hide its own scientific report, the National Climate Assessment noted that climate change “presents added risks to interconnected systems” including “national security.” The report warned against “failure to anticipate interconnected impacts” that span regional and national boundaries. In 2019, the Pentagon released an alarming report that confirmed climate change is a national security threat, “likely to fuel competition for resources, economic distress, and social discontent through 2019 and beyond.”
On Special Report, Pompeo then pivoted to another Trump administration rhetorical relic of conflating environmental protection with climate change mitigation. Pompeo said, “We care deeply about clean air and clean water. Every Republican does” to distract from the Trump administration’s failures on climate. He failed to note that the Trump administration repeatedly curbed the EPA’s ability to ensure clean air and safe drinking water.