WH on Global Warming: Don't Ask Us!; Trump Cites Climate Study; Author Calls Foul.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. Thanks for joining us. We begin tonight with "Keeping Them Honest" with the White House acting that the public simply does not deserve to know the president's thinking about the key issue behind arguably one of the biggest decisions he's made so far, which, frankly, is a bit strange. We know in great detail why the president decided to pull this country out of the Paris accord on global warming. He said so on no uncertain terms. And you can agree or disagree with his reasoning. That's not the issue here. The issue is: we do not know what the president actually believes about global warming, which, as I said, is a bit odd, because it's a simple yes or no, and it's not as if he and others haven't been -- or we and others haven't been asking about it. In fact, for three- quarters of an hour today, his spokesman, along with is EPA administrator dodged the central question about the central issue. Does the president believe as he said in the campaign that global warming is a hoax? You'll remember, Sean Spicer was asked about it on Tuesday.</s>REPORTER: Can you say whether or not the president believes that human activity is contributing to the warming of the climate?</s>SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Honestly, I haven't asked him.</s>REPORTER: OK.</s>SPICER: I'll get back to you.</s>COOPER: He hadn't asked but said that he could get back. But apparently, he didn't ask. And then, something happened.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord.</s>COOPER: So, that's why we're asking. It seems self-evidence that on the verge of ditching the climate change accord, people might want to know whether the president still thought the entire subject is a hoax. As you saw, the White House otherwise and still did even after the president announced his decision.</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Does the president believe climate change is a hoax?</s>SCOTT PRUITT, EPA ADMINISTRATOR: This is not about whether climate change is occurring or not.</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Does P Trump still believe climate change is a hoax?</s>GARY COHN, WHITE HOUSE ADVISOR: What President Trump believes is he was elected to grow the U.S. economy.</s>BLITZER: But with all due respect, Gary, you're not answering the question.</s>COHN: I'm answering what the president's committed to. You're going to have to ask him. You're going to actually have to ask him.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does he believe global warming is a hoax?</s>KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: He believes in clean air and clean water, a clean environment.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll ask you one more time. Does he believe global warming is a hoax?</s>CONWAY: You can ask him that.</s>COOPER: Well, that brings us to this afternoon's White House briefing.</s>REPORTER: Now it's been 48, 72 hours. What does the president actually believe climate change is a hoax? Can you clarify that because apparently no one else in the White House can?</s>SPICER: I have not had an opportunity to have that discussion.</s>REPORTER: You're the EPA administrator. Shouldn't you be able to tell the American people whether or not the president still believes that climate change is a hoax? Where does he stand?</s>PRUITT: As I indicated several times in the process, there's enough to deal with with respect to the Paris agreement and making an informed decision about this important issue. That's where our focus has been over the last several weeks. I've answered the question a couple of times.</s>COOPER: Keeping them honest. Neither he nor Sean Spicer nor Kellyanne Conway nor the president himself have actually answered the question. They have responded to a question, but they actually haven't answered it. The idea that you saw some of them suggests that we'll need to ask the president ourselves, we'd love to. The president hasn't taken a single question from the press for almost three weeks. We'd ask him about his views on global warming and the Russian investigation because on the latter, Sean Spicer now has a new tactic from the press podium, referring all questions to that subject to the president's outside counsel. So, now on two of the most pressing issues facing this administration arguably, the new line is basically, don't ask us. Jim Acosta was involved in one of those questions and non-answer exchanges. He joins us now. I mean, it certainly seems like no one in the White House wants to answer whether or not the president believes in climate change.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Anderson. You would think we were asking for the nuclear codes today in the briefing room. But now, we were trying to ask a simple question, does the president believe that climate change is a hoax? But, Anderson, we've seen this pattern before. When the president clings to a false belief that, for example, President Obama was not born in the United States or that President Obama wire-tapped him at Trump Tower or climate change is a hoax, it takes, weeks, months, even years for the president to back off of that position. We saw it eventually happen with the birth certificate and the whole birther issue during the campaign. But that took years. So, yes, today we tried once again to ask EPA administrator Scott Pruitt. He was the latest administration official to get inside the president's head, whether or not President Trump believes that climate change is real. When that question was asked several times, I tried a different approach and simply asked the EPA administrator, after all, he's in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency, about the overwhelming scientific evidence that climate change is happening around the world and here's what he had to say.</s>ACOSTA: Why are the hottest temperatures in the last decade essentially -- the hottest temperatures that we've seen on record --</s>PRUITT: We've actually been in hiatus since the late 1990s.</s>ACOSTA: But sir, when NASA says that 95 percent of the experts in this area around the world believe that the earth is warming and you are up there throwing out information that says, well, maybe this is being exaggerated, whether you're talking about climate exaggerators, it seems like to a lot of people around the world that you and the president are just denying the reality. And the reality of the situation is that climate change is happening and it is a significant threat to the planet.</s>PRUITT: Let me say this, and I've said it in the confirmation process and I said it yesterday and --</s>PRUITT: No, let me finish -- there is -- there is -- we have done a tremendous amount as a country to achieve reductions in CO2 and we have done that through technology and innovation. We will continue to do that. We're just not going to agree to frameworks and agreements that put us at an economic disadvantage and hurts citizens across this country. Yes, sir?</s>ACOSTA: I think you're putting your head in the sand, though, Mr. Pruitt. They're a little worried that you're putting your head in the sand.</s>PRUITT: Well, that -- there's no evidence of that.</s>ACOSTA: Now, speaking of heads in the sand, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer came out after that, Anderson, and as you mentioned, we reminded him that earlier in the week, he was asked whether he could ask the president whether he still believes climate change is happening. He did not have an answer to that question. He was even asked, well, can you go and try to do that? And we did not get a firm commitment that that would happen.</s>COOPER: So, Jim, the White House is being pressed on several counts regarding the Russia investigation. Were they able to pry any information on that today at all?</s>ACOSTA: No. The press secretary did say that the president has confidence in Jared Kushner. That much he did say during the briefing today. But asked whether or not the president is going to invoke executive privilege and try to block the former FBI Director James Comey who the president fired a few weeks ago from testifying on Capitol Hill next week, he only said that they are reviewing that. I talked to a separate White House official just within the last hour who said that's basically where they stand right now. They are reviewing this issue. And of course, there's a huge question as to whether the president could legally block James Comey from testifying. So, this may be, you know, really sort of trying to distract folks with something that they really can't do in the long run. But, Anderson, time and again we are getting fewer and fewer questions answered by this White House, and it's a pattern that I don't think we're going to see an end to any time soon. They are really acting as if they're just in the bunker on almost every single big issue these days.</s>COOPER: All right. Jim Acosta, appreciate the update. On climate change, the president cited plenty of facts and figures yesterday, all of which have been checked and many of which have been called into question, including this.</s>TRUMP: Even if the Paris agreement were implemented in full, with total compliance from all nations, it is estimated it would only produce a two-tenths of one degree -- think of that; this much -- Celsius reduction in global temperature by the year 2100. Tiny, tiny amount.</s>COOPER: Which is true, but only as far as it goes. John Reilly is co-director of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change and co-author of the very study that the president himself cited. He says that if not for the Paris accord, this tiny reduction that the president mentioned would instead be a large increase. I spoke to him earlier tonight.</s>COOPER: Did anyone in the White House reach out to you or any of your colleagues at MIT before citing the study yesterday?</s>JOHN REILLY, CO-DIRECTOR, MIT JOINT PROGRAM ON THE SCIENCE AND POLICY OF GLOBAL CHANGE: No. We were, of course, completely surprised. It was hard for us to imagine how that study could be used to support withdrawal of the U.S. from the agreement. If anything, it would seem to suggest that the U.S. should engage even more with the Paris accord and the Paris accord, of course, includes a schedule for reviewing progress and making new commitments. So, it's part of the negotiation process that President Trump suggested he wanted to re-engage. So, there's no -- it doesn't make any sense to me that one would withdraw.</s>COOPER: If the White House had reached out to you, if the White House had reached out to you, you would have told them, what, continue with the accord and try to do more?</s>REILLY: Yes. In fact, I and my colleagues here at MIT have something we call a policy plan accelerator which we're trying to bring the tools we have to help different countries meet their agreements because people still don't have a really firm idea of exactly how they are going to meet them but accelerate beyond that.</s>COOPER: I mean, were you completely -- you were completely surprised when your study was cited. I'm just wondering, personally, what is it like to be sitting there and suddenly hear the White House, the president, using your study in a way that is not correct?</s>REILLY: Well, I mean, unfortunately, in this business, it's not the first time that people have taken our work and twisted it out of shape. So, it goes with the territory. Frankly, my concern is just much, much more, not what it means for me personally but what it means for the planet.</s>COOPER: Well, John, I appreciate your work and appreciate you talking to us. John Reilly, thank you.</s>REILLY: Thank you.</s>COOPER: Well, plenty to talk about with the panel. Paul Begala is here. Jason Miller, Jennifer Granholm, Stephen Moore and Maggie Haberman. Maggie, why wouldn't the White House just say whether or not the president believes that -- continues to believe that climate change is a hoax as he had previously tweeted as a civilian?</s>MAGGIE HABERMAN, NEW YORK TIMES WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Probably, because if the answer is yes, I don't think they're prepared to deal with what all -- everything that would come with that, and I don't think they don't want to get into -- having to explain away a tweet from a couple of years ago that having been said, this is perfectly fair game, it's a legitimate question and it's something he said as a candidate, it's something that he put out there in the media and that he continues to use and it's his favorite way of communicating directly with people. It is I think -- I think it's a problem on its own and it's not going to go away, but I think it is emblematic as Jim said of the fact that the White House has just hunkered down on almost everything these days. It's very, very hard to get a direct answer on a number of topics. And we have gone from -- look, to be fair to the president, early on in the administration -- well, we're still early on. Earlier earlier on in the administration, he was much more accessible than, say, President Obama was. Reporters were able to talk to him much more easily. His people were, while Sean Spicer was aggressive, to put it mildly, the press shop overall actually was pretty responsive. People like Hope Hicks were very responsive. I think it has -- it has changed in the last couple of weeks. I think that the post James Comey firing period has really, really altered the balance here and what you saw with the EPA and what you saw with whether he still thinks climate change is a hoax is part of that.</s>COOPER: Stephen, shouldn't the American people be able to know whether or not the president believes climate change is a hoax or not?</s>STEPHEN MOORE, FORMER SENIOR ECONOMIC ADVISER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Well, I just want to clarify something for you because I think that what conservatives believe -- I've never talked to Donald Trump directly about climate change. But I know how conservatives feel about this which --</s>COOPER: Right. But you know how he's tweeted. I'm just asking a simple question.</s>MOORE: Yes.</s>COOPER: Don't the American people have a right to know whether the president believes something which he is making policy based on is a hoax or not?</s>MOORE: Right. I get it. What I'm saying is I believe what he meant to say, when he said this is a hoax, is not that the climate change is a hoax but that this climate change deal is a hoax.</s>COOPER: He said it was a hoax created by the Chinese, if memory serves me right.</s>MOORE: Yes, that the idea -- conservatives don't believe that the United Nations can do anything right and --</s>COOPER: Again, but the question which you don't seem to want to answer is, don't the American people have a right to know what the president actually believes? I mean, if this is a question --</s>MOORE: Probably, they do. But I think -- again, there's a cultural divide here. I think most conservatives are not saying that climate change isn't happening. It's the idea that government can change the weather.</s>COOPER: But again, we don't know what the president is saying because he won't answer this question.</s>MOORE: Look, I never asked him about it, so we'll see what happens in the weeks ahead. But this is a high hurdle.</s>COOPER: OK, Paul, does -- Paul, does it seem odd to you that the president won't answer this question and no one around him seems willing to ask him and relay that answer?</s>PAULA BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, as always, Maggie has it exactly right. They don't answer it because they can't answer it, but the president has answered it. Five times, at least that I found on the Snopes website, the debunking website that checks to see if these myths about Trump and other public figures are true. Five times they've published tweets from Donald Trump, beginning with the one in 2012, where he said, and I quote, the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing noncompetitive. He has called it a hoax, a very expensive hoax, the global warming hoax, an expensive hoax again, B.S., which he wrote out the whole word there and nonsense again and again. Now, people like me need to give him credit. It's -- this guy's a genius. Let's face it. I mean, he's a long line. Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia. Woodrow Wilson ran Princeton. Donald Trump ran Trump University. And he clearly knows more than 97 percent of all scientists. The guy's a genius. And I think people like me need to accept that, that he's just smarter than everybody in the whole wide world, and he's the only one who figured out the hoax, and I think we need to thank God that we're led by a man of this rare genius.</s>COOPER: Jason, I mean, you know, the argument of whether or not it's real or not, you know, is obviously one -- one can go on for hours about but the basic question of what the president actually believes and why won't anybody in the White House admit what he actually believes, you worked with him on the campaign during the transition, do you know what his stance is on climate change? Does he still believe it's a hoax?</s>JASON MILLER, FORMER SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Well, I can tell you some of the conversations that I've had with the president. This is, of course, factor in the campaign when we had a number of conversations about the environment and I can tell you that he's passionate about the environment and he's built a number of these resorts and golf courses and loves the outdoors. I know that on a number of issues, the president actually has, surprisingly, left of center views on some of these. He supports like beach re-nourishment and other things, a number of other things that many conservative Republicans don't support. But I think, Anderson, you're asking the wrong question here. If the question is asked, does the president support the environment, does he want to have clean air and water? The answer is, of course, yes. When we're putting, bring up the climate --</s>COOPER: Why is it fair to ask whether he thinks it's a hoax as he used to?</s>MILLER: Because the question what folks -- many in the media or many on the left are trying to get to right now is if he says it's a hoax, then he'll be attacked for being a heretic, if he says it's not a hoax, he'll be attacked for being a flip-flopper, and then it takes the whole conversation away from the fact that he took a major step yesterday to protect American jobs and we start going down into the rabbit hole as far as, you know, who is right and who is wrong on some of the environmental issues. And I think he's smartly keeping the focus squarely where it should be right now, which is on jobs and the economy, which was his central argument with withdrawing from the Paris accord.</s>COOPER: But isn't the rabbit hole just fact? I mean, the rabbit hole just what the president actually believes? I mean, I wouldn't characterize what the president believes as a rabbit hole. I believe -- I think it's what he actually believes -- I don't know. I -- to me, it seems like a basic question and a fair one. No?</s>MILLER: Well, again, I think it's a fair question to ask, does he support the environment and support efforts to go and clean up the environment and continue improving the situation that we're facing right now. But again, when we start getting into specific studies, and there have been a lot of junk studies that have been put out there and I think reasonable people can have difference of opinions on this. But again, I think what the media and many of the left are trying to do is to unfairly put the president in one of these boxes when the fact of the matter is, he does support the environment.</s>COOPER: OK. I mean, he has tweeted about this and he's said in the past. So, I guess, to me, it seems reasonable that you can ask him about, does he still believe? We're going to take a break. I want to dig deeper into political after effects when we come back. The down and upside for the president. Later, can the president stop the FBI director he fired from testifying next week? We'll talk about whether he might invoke executive privilege, what that means and what a court may think of it.