Gore, President-Elect Look to Find 'Common Ground' on Climate Change
It certainly wasn't a meeting anyone expected after Donald Trump called the idea of man-made climate "a hoax" on the campaign trail. But on Monday, Trump met with former Vice President Al Gore, one of the most famous climate activists in the world.
"I had a lengthy and very productive meeting about the transition with the president-elect," said Gore after leaving Trump Tower. "It was a sincere search for areas of common ground. I found it an extremely interesting conversation and to be continued, and I'm just going to leave it at that."
Trump told The New York Times after the election that there may be what he called some "connectivity" between human activity and climate change.
But Reince Preibus, who will be Trump's chief of staff, told Fox News that Trump still thinks global warming is mainly a bunch of bunk.
Meanwhile, Trump is still searching for a possible secretary of state. On Tuesday, he will meet with the CEO of Exxon Mobil, Rex Tillerson.
He will also meet with Henry Kissinger, who worked in the Nixon and Ford administrations.
Trump also met Monday with Robert McFarland, who served as the former national security advisor for President Ronald Reagan in the mid-1980s.
Meanwhile, a new recording has surfaced on the website The Intercept in which Trump's nominee for secretary of defense, retired Marine Gen. James "Mad Dog" Mattis, talks about the Iraq war. The recording was made last year during a question and answer session at a conference for global security professionals.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we will probably look back on the invasion of Iraq as a mistake – as a strategic mistake," Mattis, who was an important military leader during the Iraq war, can be heard saying.
Trump himself has been extremely critical of the U.S. intervention in Iraq.
Meanwhile, Democrats quickly criticized another one of Trump's cabinet choices - retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. Carson was selected to head up the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called Carson a "disconcerting and disturbingly unqualified choice."
Incoming Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also questioned Carson's qualifications.
"I have serious concerns about Dr. Carson's lack of expertise and experience in dealing with housing issues. Someone who is as anti-government as him is a strange fit for housing secretary, to say the least," Schumer said.
As for Trump himself, he took on the media again Monday, putting out the following statement on Twitter to explain why he tweets so often:
"If the press would cover me accurately and honorably, I would have far less reason to 'Tweet,'" wrote Trump. "Sadly, I don't know if that will ever happen!"
