Two former Environmental Protection Agency administrators under Presidents Nixon and George H.W. Bush have endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, saying Donald Trump has shown a “profound ignorance of science” and of public health issues in environmental law.
“Republicans have a long history of support for the environment dating back to Theodore Roosevelt. Donald Trump threatens to destroy that legacy of respect for the environment and protection of public health,” William D. Ruckelshaus, who served under Nixon, and William K. Reilly, the EPA Administrator under Mr. Bush, said in a joint statement Tuesday.
“That Trump would call climate change a hoax — the singular health and environmental threat to the world today — flies in the face of overwhelming international science and the public conviction and commitment of almost 200 national governments that adopted the Paris Agreement on climate change in December 2015,” the two men said.
“Our leadership was essential to that agreement,” they said. “To back away now, as Trump wants to do, would set the world back decades — years we could never recover. The young people in this country deserve far better than that as our legacy.”
The endorsements come the day after 50 former national security officials who served in Republican administrations dating back to President Nixon released a letter saying they will not vote for Mr. Trump and that he would be a “dangerous” president.
Mr. Trump said in response to that letter that he thanked the signatories for coming forward “so everyone in the country knows who deserves the blame for making the world such a dangerous place.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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