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Donald Trump dismissed human rights abuses and climate change in his latest interview Photo credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

Donald Trump dismissed human rights abuses and climate change in his latest interview

It’s as bad as it sounds.
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Thanks to Twitter and the fervor around the American presidency right now, Donald Trump has no problem getting his ideas out to the public. Whether he’s tweeting, stopping to talk to reporters on his way to Air Force One or freestyling at a rally, we pretty much always have access to the president’s stream of consciousness. Very little would shock us at this point, but in an interview for CBS’s 60 Minutes this weekend, Trump laid out some controversial viewpoints that warrant some highlighting.

In the wide-ranging sit-down, reporter Lesley Stahl asked the president about the recent appointment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, his obvious fondness for authoritarian leaders Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un and the recent climate change report that basically gives us 12 years before the planet is destroyed.

How did it go? Well, if you think women who report sexual assault should be believed, that other countries should be held to account for human rights abuses and that climate change is real, not too well.

“It’s not in our country.”

How does Donald Trump feel about strongman leaders using murder to consolidate and keep power? Basically, if it doesn’t affect U.S. citizens, it’s not his problem. Stahl asked about that press conference where Donald Trump refused to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin to account for his government’s proven meddling in the 2016 election and the human rights abuses he is personally accused of. Trump defended his performance and refused to take the opportunity to condemn those actions.

“I think I’m very tough with him personally. I had a meeting with him. The two of us. It was a very tough meeting and it was a very good meeting,” he said. When Stahl asked if he believed Putin was involved in assassinations and poisonings, he answered, “Probably he is, yeah.”

“But I rely on [Russia],” Trump continued, “It’s not in our country … Of course they shouldn’t do it.”

Stahl pushed on the Russia meddling issue and asked why Trump wouldn’t say publicly that Putin and his government meddled in their election. He responded by theorizing that it wasn’t just Russia, but also China that meddled.

“They– they meddled. But I think China meddled too,” he said. When Stahl accused him of “diverting the whole Russia thing,” Trump defended his position.

“I’m saying Russia, but I’m also saying China.”

“I’m not a baby. I know these things.”

Trump’s relationship with another controversial leader — Kim Jong-Un — also came up. At a rally a few weeks earlier, Trump had said that he “fell in love” with Kim during their meeting back in June. In the interview, Trump insisted that he trusts Kim, but Stahl whipped out her receipts — i.e. Kim’s resume.

“He presides over a cruel kingdom of repression, gulags, starvation– reports that he had his half-brother assassinated, slave labour, public executions. This is a guy you love?” she posed. Trump tried to defend his position, but had a bit of a rough time.

“Sure. I know all these things. I mean– I’m not a baby. I know these things,” he said. “Look, look. I like– I get along with him, okay? … Look. Let it be whatever it is. I get along with him really well. I have a good energy with him. I have a good chemistry with him. Look at the horrible threats that were made. No more threats. No more threats.”

“It doesn’t matter. We won.”

Less than two weeks ago, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the confirmation hearing for Judge Brett Kavanaugh who was later appointed to the Supreme Court after a controversial vote. Balsey Ford described the alleged attempted assault by a drunk Kavanaugh at a high school  party with poise and conviction. So much so that Donald Trump even said she was believable at the time. Later, however, he mocked her at a rally and said that she did not recall details she clearly stated in her testimony.

Stahl asked Trump about that incident and if he regrets how he treated Dr. Blasey Ford, a survivor of a traumatic sexual assault.

“Had I not made that speech, we would not have won. I was just saying she didn’t seem to know anything,” he said. “I didn’t really make fun of her … What I said, the person that we’re talking about didn’t know the year, the time, the place.”

Stahl pressed him on that, asking how he can defend himself encouraging a room full of people to laugh at Dr. Blasey Ford. Trump said that he treated her “with great respect,” before dismissing the whole conversation.

“You know what? I’m not gonna get into it because we won. It doesn’t matter.  We won.”

“Scientists also have a political agenda.”

Donald Trump has a long history of not believing in climate change. He’s said that it is a hoax created by the Chinese and pulled out of the international Paris Climate Agreement committing the U.S. and 195 other countries to decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.

On 60 Minutes, the president admitted that climate change isn’t a hoax, but immediately negated that by adding that it isn’t caused by human activities and that climate scientists have political agendas.

“I think something’s happening. Something’s changing and it’ll change back again,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a hoax, I think there’s probably a difference. But I don’t know that it’s man made. I will say this: I don’t wanna give trillions and trillions of dollars. I don’t wanna lose millions and millions of jobs. I don’t wanna be put at a disadvantage.”

Stahl said that her own belief in climate change was solidified by the increasing size, duration and storm surge of hurricanes hitting the United States and other southern countries. Trump wasn’t buying it.

“I’m not denying climate change. But it could very well go back. You know, we’re talking about over millions of years,” he said. “They say that we had hurricanes that were far worse than what we just had with Michael.” When questioned who “they” refers to, Trump suggested that climate scientists are the dishonest or misleading ones.

“People say. People say that in the–” he tried to explain, “You’d have to show me the scientists because they have a very big political agenda, Lesley … Look, scientists also have a political agenda.”

But wait! There’s more!

Yes, the interview is bleak, but eagle-eyed viewers noticed a little tidbit in the background — Trump has an oil painting of himself having a drink (diet coke, of course) with past Republican presidents hanging in the White House.

The portrait — painted by Andy Thomas and entitled “The Republican Club” — features both George Bushes, Ronald Reagan, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Richard Nixon and more, plus a “future” female Republican president approaching the table. There is also a Democrat version featuring Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and others.

And last but not least, for a brief moment, you can see Donald Trump’s infamous red and pink starbursts in the corner of the screen.