During last week’s 5th District candidates debate Cathy McMorris Rodgers (as the highest ranking Republican woman in Congress) made it abundantly clear that despite Trump’s disturbing pattern of behavior toward women, she thinks Donald Trump is the right person to lead the nation. Unbelievable!
“I will be voting for Donald Trump and I beleive that he’s going to bring the positive disruption that we need to see in our government, challenging the status quo, bringing genuine accountability...”
Cathy McMorris Rodgers isn’t going to try to hold Donald Trump accountable for his words or deeds
And in response to a follow up question:
“You know I made it very clear that there are things Donald Trump has said and done that I don’t agree with. I beleive in being very transparent. What I see in him is someone that can bring the change we need at the top. Challenge the status quo. I see him as a businessman that knows how to create jobs and grow our economy...”
While McMorris Rodgers points out she doesn’t “agree with” with things Trump has said and done, “bringing genuine accountability” won’t be a standard McMorris Rodgers applies to Trump’s own behavior. Donald has been the antithesis of “being very transparent” but that doesn’t trouble McMorris Rodgers in her audacious hypocrisy.
Not surprisingly her challenger Joe Pakootas is making an issue of McMorris Rodgers continuing support for Donald Trump.
Joe Pakootas calls on McMorris Rodgers to condemn Trump and withdraw support
Pakootas a member of the Spokane Tribe is giving McMorris Rodgers the strongest challenge of her 12 year congressional career. Donate to Joe Pakootas for Congress — Get Involved
Later in the debate McMorris Rodgers deliberately omits mentioning climate change as the dominant factor driving declining forest health, and the catastrophic wildfires that have devastated portions of the 5th District. All to please McMorris Rodgers biggest sponsors the Koch network.
Panel question: “In 2014 Washington lost almost 400,000 acres to wildfires, catastrophic wildfires. Then in 2015 it was more than a million acres. Much of it in U.S. Forest Service land, a federal agency, experts said that land is flat out not being managed properly, and not at necessary levels to actually prevent these catastrophic wildfires that have devastated communities and left hundreds of people homeless. We have heard the talk about needing to do more. However, at this point, what is it going to take to actually do more and fund some of these preventive measures that could actually prevent these fires and the cycle of fire?”
McMorris Rodgers: “This is a very big issue for Eastern Washington, the catastrophic fires we have experienced are devastating and it has a huge impact on people in Eastern Washington…
...If people understood the conditions of these forests they would be outraged. They imagine that they are clean healthy trees. One out of three acres of US Forest Service is desease, bug infested dying trees. We need to take action to have healthy trees, and that will prevent these forest fires.
What McMorris Rodgers avoids mentioning is that the bark beetles that are killing these forests have greatly expanded their range as the warming climate no longer produces the hard freezes during the winters that kill the beetle larva, rendering ten of millions of acres of forest vulnerable to bark beetle infestations in regions that used to experience these sustained hard freezes that kept the bark beetles at bay for eons.
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