Trump’s USDA Pick is Poster Boy for GOP War on Science

Ignorant, anti-science, homophobe, early, loyal Trump supporter – what’s not to like?

Those republican Senators, including Senator Flake and Corker, who have expressed doubts about Trump’s leadership, have a perfect opportunity here to show they aren’t bullshitters. Turn this nominee down.

Politico:

But other than the fact Clovis is not a scientist, nothing about his background and work on the campaign and transition has gotten as much attention as his skepticism about climate change, in part because the division he would oversee conducts all manner of climate science research — from studying how to reduce the carbon footprint of food production to coming up with ways for farmers to adapt to more severe weather patterns.

When he was running for Senate in 2014, Clovis did an interview with Iowa Public Radio, during which the hosts pointed out that 97 percent of climate scientists agree that rising temperatures are “very likely due to human activities.”

“Do you believe the science?” the hosts asked.

“I am extremely skeptical,” he said without skipping a beat. “I have looked at the science and I have enough of a science background to know when I’m being boofed.

And a lot of the science is junk science.“It’s not proven,” he continued. “I don’t think there’s any substantive information available to me that doesn’t raise as many questions as it does answers. So I’m a skeptic.”

The Hill:

President Trump’s pick to be chief scientist for the Department of Agriculture (USDA) previously suggested former President Obama wanted to “enslave” his opponents and seemed “happy” after the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

CNN’s KFile reviewed transcripts of episodes of Sam Clovis’s radio show, audio from his radio appearances and blog posts by Clovis, which showed him going after the former president.

“This president is a dangerous person,” Clovis wrote in an April 2012 blog post reported by CNN.

Sioux City Journal:

Clovis, who currently serves as senior White House advisor to the USDA, was nominated in July as Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics.

The U.S. Senate must confirm Clovis before he takes the new post. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue supports Clovis’ nomination.

Before resigning last fall, Clovis was a tenured business administration professor at Morningside College.

Clovis also came under scrutiny in the first week of August for a years-old blog from his former radio show. in which he labeled progressives “liars, race traders and race traitors.” He also referred to former President Barack Obama as a “socialist” who “hates the greatness of this nation.”

A comment by Sam Clovis, a former talk show host for KSCJ-AM radio and Morningside College professor in Sioux City, has been aired from a few years ago, when he said, “as far as we know, LGBT behavior is a choice.”

CNN undertook a substantial task to work back through statements by Clovis when he was on the radio and as a candidate in 2013-2014 for a U.S. Senate seat and the Iowa treasurer position. CNN published the piece Monday morning, as Clovis awaits confirmation to a post in the U.S Department of Agriculture.

The YouTube video of a campaign stop shows Clovis at a table with a mug of Casey’s Bakery, a Sioux Center, Iowa, business, but it is not clear if it is in Sioux Center. However, conservative Jacob Hall, who lives in Sioux Center, is sitting next to Clovis, who responded to Hall’s question.

Clovis was addressing the topic of groups of people who have constitutional protections, and he discussed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Said Clovis, “Someone who engages in LGBT behavior, sometimes — you know, and I don’t know what the science is on this, I think it’s still out — but as far as I, that we know, that is a choice they make, right. So we’re being asked to provide constitutional protections for behavior, a choice in behavior as opposed to a primary characteristic.”

He continued, “If we protect LGBT behavior, what other behaviors are we going to protect? Are we going to protect pedophilia? Are we going to protect polyamorous marriage relationships? Are we going to protect people who have fetishes? I mean, what’s the logical extension of this?”