Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., asked Lee Zeldin, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the Environmental Protection Agency, if he believed climate change is a hoax like Trump has claimed.
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“I believe that climate change is real,” Zeldin said. “As far as President Trump goes, the context that I’ve heard him speak about it, was with a criticism of policies that have been enacted because of climate change, and I think that he’s concerned about the economic costs of some policies where there’s a debate and a difference of opinion between parties.”
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Sanders said he disagreed with Zeldin’s characterization of Trump’s position on climate change.
Zeldin is a former congressman from New York. He left Congress in January 2023 and was among the Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted against certifying the 2020 election results. In his time in the House, he did not serve on committees that oversaw environmental policy.
