Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that President Donald Trump blaming a lack of “forest management” for wildfires in Washington, Oregon and California was “just a big and devastating lie.”
In a clip, Trump said, “Spoke to the folks in Oregon, Washington, they’ve never had anything like this. But you know it’s about forest management. Please remember the words very simple, forest management, please remember. It’s about forest management. And other things but forest management.”
Anchor George Stephanopoulos asked, “Is that contributing to this, Senator Merkley?”
Merkley said, “You know, the president has said it’s all about raking the forest, it’s just a big and devastating lie. We have the Cascades snowpack have gotten smaller, our forest have gotten dryer, our ocean has gotten warmer and more acidic, this has been happening steadily over the last several decades. These are consequences of warming planet that have huge impacts, huge impacts on rural America, with our forest, with our farming, with our fishing. This should not be red or blue, or rural or urban, is devastating to everyone. Just on COVID, we need to have a president who follows the science. We need to have a president that follows the science on global warming.”
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