Climate change ‘real risk,’ nominee says
Trump UN pick breaks with the White House
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s nominee to be United Nations ambassador publicly broke with the White House over climate change on Wednesday, calling it a “real risk” and promising to take the issue seriously if confirmed to the high-profile diplomatic position.
The statement by Kelly Knight Craft – made during a contentious Senate confirmation hearing – marked a sharp reversal from her previous comments, in which she said she believed “both sides” of the science on climate change.
“Climate change needs to be addressed as it poses real risk to our planet,” Craft, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, said in opening remarks before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“Let there be no doubt” that human behavior is contributing to global warming, she added. “I will be an advocate in addressing climate change,” Craft promised, although she also said the United States should not shoulder an “outsized burden” in curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
Craft’s statement was particularly remarkable because of her family ties to the coal industry and because Trump has questioned whether climate change is man-made.
Craft is a top Republican donor from Kentucky, and her billionaire husband, Joseph Craft III, is the president and CEO of Alliance Resource Partners, a major U.S. coal company. Trump tapped Craft for the U.N. post at the urging of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Craft and her husband donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration in 2016, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics. The center’s data show that Alliance Resource Partners, through its employees and other associated entities, have donated more than $5 million to federal candidates since 2010 – almost exclusively to Republicans, including several GOP members of the Foreign Relations Committee.
Campaign donors are often rewarded with plum ambassador posts. Craft’s supporters say she is well qualified for the job, pointing in part to her tenure in Canada, where she helped navigate the contentious trade negotiations that led to a new agreement to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.
McConnell introduced Craft at Wednesday’s hearing, calling her a distinguished stateswoman and leader who has “the knowledge, talent and experience” to represent the U.S. at the United Nations.
It’s not clear if Craft’s reversal on climate change will be enough to assuage Senate Democrats, who sharply questioned her commitment to confronting an issue that tops the United Nations’ agenda.
Craft sparked ridicule and outrage when she claimed to believe scientists on “both sides” of the climate change debate in a 2017 interview with Canada’s CBC television network.
“I believe there are scientists on both sides that are accurate,” Craft said when asked if she believed in climate change.
Pressed on whether she believes humans are not contributing to climate change, she said then: “Well, I think that both sides have, you know, their own results from their studies, and I appreciate and respect both sides of the science.”
Wednesday’s hearing comes more than six months after Trump’s first U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, left the administration. Trump initially tapped Heather Nauert, a former Fox News host and State Department spokeswoman, to replace Haley. But Nauert withdrew amid questions about her qualifications for the high-profile position.