CNN’s Kasie Hunt probably expected a routine grilling when she had EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on Monday morning. Instead, she got a clinic in facts, law, and constitutional authority from a Trump appointee who came armed to the teeth with information and left the network’s narrative in shambles. Hunt, who opened the segment with a standard climate change talking point, quickly found herself overwhelmed and, for nearly two minutes, visibly stunned into silence as Zeldin dismantled the left’s climate dogma and CNN’s spin on a key EPA proposal.
The segment began with Hunt tossing Zeldin a loaded question: “Do you accept the overwhelming scientific consensus that these greenhouse gas emissions are the biggest drivers of manmade climate change?”
Rather than taking the bait, Zeldin calmly corrected her misleading framing. “All eight or so images that you just posted on the screen have nothing to do with this week’s announcement,” he began. “This week’s proposal to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding was with regards to mobile sources, vehicles. CNN has been using a lot of photos where they show smokestacks of stationary sources like power plants. That’s not what we proposed.”
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From there, Zeldin launched into a fact-packed rebuke of the 2009 Endangerment Finding itself, calling out the Obama-era EPA’s reliance on worst-case climate scenarios that “ended up not panning out.” He pointed out that the agency is legally bound to follow the Clean Air Act as written, not reinterpret vague passages to push sweeping mandates.
“At EPA, we don’t just get to creatively make the law whatever we want it to be,” Zeldin said. “The Supreme Court ruled in Loper Bright, overturning the Chevron doctrine… agencies like the EPA can’t just use vague language in statute and try to make it be whatever we want it to be.”
The constitutional clarity didn’t stop there. Zeldin reminded viewers — and Hunt — that only Congress has the authority to write laws, especially ones with trillion-dollar regulatory implications: “The major policy doctrine says that… that’s something that should be decided by our elected members of Congress.”
Hunt, caught off guard, tried to pivot by playing a 2016 clip of Zeldin saying that the climate is changing and calling for a reduced reliance on fossil fuels. “What’s changed for you?” she asked.
“Nothing,” Zeldin replied bluntly. “The climate has always been changing.” He went on to tout accomplishments under the Trump administration, from cleaning up the Tijuana River crisis to major upgrades in water quality standards. “We are very proud of our historic wildfire cleanup in Los Angeles,” he added. “We released 100 environmental accomplishments in the first 100 days of President Trump’s term.”
Hunt attempted a final Hail Mary, invoking climate change-related insurance problems in Florida. But Zeldin didn’t flinch. “That’s something for members of Congress to talk about how to fund insurance programs,” he said, before pointing out that emissions have dropped and that the planet has actually greened over time. “We at the Trump administration promote consumer choice,” he added, rejecting the EV mandates and regulatory overreach favored by the Biden White House.
For nearly two minutes, Hunt had nothing: no follow-up, no fact-check, no clever pivot, just silence. And in the world of legacy media, that silence spoke volumes. It turns out that when a Republican comes prepared and refuses to play along with the script, even CNN has no idea what to say.
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