California governor: 'Trump says global warming is a hoax. I say Trump is a fraud.'

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) takes climate change seriously, and slammed Donald Trump for not doing the same.

"Make no mistake: Climate change is real," Brown said. "The vast majority of world leaders and climate scientists like those at NASA and the Department of Defense — indeed almost anyone who chooses to think — believes in the crisis of climate change and sees the moral imperative to take action." Listening to Trump talk at the Republican National Convention last week for "76 long and painful minutes," Brown said he heard Trump "conjure up a host of dark threats but never once mentioned the words 'climate change' or 'global warming.'"

Brown called climate change "unlike any other threat we humans face," and said it "will take heroic effort on the part of many people and many nations" to combat it. "Trump says global warming is a hoax," Brown said. "I say Trump is a fraud. Trump says there's no drought in California. I say Trump lies. It's not surprising that Trump chose as his running mate a man who denies there's such a thing as evolution." As president, Hillary Clinton will continue the work she did to fight climate change as secretary of state, Brown said, and will usher in a "clean energy revolution." This year is like no other, Brown added, since "rarely in American history have two parties diverged so profoundly. Even the know-nothing, anti-immigration party of the 1850s did not stray this far into sheer ignorance and dark fantasy as have the Republicans and their leader, Donald Trump."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up