Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
On Wednesday's Andrea Mitchell Reports, MSNBC regulars fearmongered about the possibility that the world will become uninhabitable for humans unless the Joe Biden administration can enact regulations on the fossil fuel industry that were blocked by President Donald Trump.
MSNBC weekend host Jonathan Capehart made absurd suggestions that humans might have to fly into space to find a place to live, and historian Jon Meacham hinted that there might not be anyone alive in the future to admonish their ancestors for not acting in the present.
Host Andrea Mitchell began the segment by blaming "climate change" for recent weather disasters involving wildfires and flooding. "And extreme weather wreaking havoc worldwide as the experts say climate change taking place even faster with greater impact than ever predicted." She then brought aboard Meacham -- who was notably dropped as an MSNBC contributor last summer after it came out that he was secretly advising the Biden campaign but still frequently appears on the network as a guest anyway.
Mitchell began by asking Meacham if the current extreme weather events are a critical time in history, leading the liberal historian to begin citing climate alarmist and former Vice President Al Gore:
Unquestionably. You know, as Al Gore says, when you watch the news these days. it's like a walking tour through the Book of Exodus, and you have these remarkable manifestations of a crisis. ... I do think that when you play this out about "What will people say 50 years from now -- what will people say 100 years from now?" -- I don't think there's any question that the lassitude with which we have addressed the self-evident changing of the climate will be something that will be held against us for a long, long, long time to come.
Mitchell followed up by inviting Capehart to complain that Trump appointed supporters of the fossil fuel industry as regulators, and asked if Biden was making "dramatic" changes, leading Capehart to complain about Trump:
Yeah, pretty dramatically, you know, not putting in people who -- not putting the regulated into positions where they are regulating their old friends back in those industries. You know, to pick up on -- you know, Jon mentioned Hippocrates, and, you know, we know the Hippocratic Oath. And the Hippocratic Oath is, "First, do no harm." And by those appointments by Donald Trump, he did harm not only to the planet but to the United States's ability to do something about climate change.
A bit later, he alluded to recent stories about billionaires taking their own privately funded trips into space to play up a possibly dire future: "We have to get a handle on this -- otherwise, we're all going to be looking for seats on the Branson -- the Branson rocket -- the Bezos rocket -- the Musk rocket up for another place that's habitable for human life."
A bit later, Meacham added his own fearmongering that there might not be anyone left alive in the future because of a lack of environmental regulations: "If anybody is around to write about this and talk about it, which might -- they might not be, but if they are, think of how picayune -- think of how petty it will seem that it was about the control of the U.S. House for a two-year period..."
This episode of Andrea Mitchell Reports was sponsored in part by Fidelity. Their contact info is linked.
Transcript follows:
MSNBC
Andrea Mitchell Reports
July 21, 2021
12:50 p.m. Eastern
ANDREA MITCHELL: And extreme weather wreaking havoc worldwide as the experts say climate change taking place even faster with greater impact than ever predicted. More than 80 wildfires raging across the West Coast, smoke drifting 2,000 miles across the country, even causing hazy skies along the East Coast. Across the globe in China, rescue efforts are still under way in Hunan province after record-breaking rains where at least 25 people died, hundreds were pulled from raging waters, still more trying to be rescued on a subway tunnel there inundated by a flood that killed 12 people, forcing the rescue of more than 500 people trapped underground. Last week in Germany, another country's deadly floods washing away towns leaving at least 180 people dead.
(...)
Jon, in your new podcast, Hope Through History, you dive into pivotal moments that helped shape our nation from Bloody Sunday to the Voting Rights Act to the emergency plan for AIDS relief -- as in George W. Bush's plan for AIDS relief -- are we living in history now with climate? Do you think that, looking forward, will the history books say this is a moment that we're in?
MEACHAM: Unquestionably. You know, as Al Gore says, when you watch the news these days. it's like a walking tour through the Book of Exodus, and you have these remarkable manifestations of a crisis. ... I do think that when you play this out about "What will people say 50 years from now -- what will people say 100 years from now?" -- I don't think there's any question that the lassitude with which we have addressed the self-evident changing of the climate will be something that will be held against us for a long, long, long time to come.
MITCHELL: Jonathan, some of the highest ranking cabinet-level officials in the Trump administration were lobbyists for the fossil fuel industry or corporate leaders in the fossil fuel industry. ... How is President Biden changing all of that? Pretty dramatically?
JONATHAN CAPEHART, HOST OF MSNBC'S THE SUNDAY SHOW: Yeah, pretty dramatically, you know, not putting in people who -- not putting the regulated into positions where they are regulating their old friends back in those industries. You know, to pick up on -- you know, Jon mentioned Hippocrates, and, you know, we know the Hippocratic Oath. And the Hippocratic Oath is, "First, do no harm." And by those appointments by Donald Trump, he did harm not only to the planet but to the United States's ability to do something about climate change.
(...)
CAPEHART:: I remember seeing reports about flash flooding happening there in New York City. So we're seeing flash flooding -- we're seeing -- we're seeing the wildfires that are burning out in the West, but they're having an impact here by clouding up our skies and smogging up our air. We have to get a handle on this -- otherwise, we're all going to be looking for seats on the Branson -- the Branson rocket -- the Bezos rocket -- the Musk rocket up for another place that's habitable for human life.
MITCHELL: And, Jon, you know, Republicans really were the leaders on climate. These great leaders from the '70s created the EPA. It was Richard Nixon who brought in William Ruckelshaus, Russell Train and all these great leaders from the '70s. They created the EPA. So how it got to be so partisan, particularly in the last four years?
MEACHAM: Well, it's the role of economics largely, and then the economic motives on the part of the carbon-based industries -- as with so many things, you're talking about in terms of election lies and almost everything else. An economic motive created the conditions for a cultural reaction, and I think that explained -- helps explain why there's so much denial.
You see it with the vaccines, right? I mean, science addresses a problem, they come up with a solution, and a large chunk of the population chooses not to accept that science or that solution. And the -- I think the partisan frame, again, if anybody is around to write about this and talk about it, which might -- they might not be, but if they are, think of how picayune -- think of how petty it will seem that it was about the control of the U.S. House for a two-year period at some point or a state legislature. And I just think that -- I think this is a moral crisis. I think the more -- if I were in power, I would try to find tangible solutions that you could do any day and then also frame it as a moral crisis...