Sen. Coburn calls himself "a man of science" and "a climate change denier"

Can't he be both?

Published August 27, 2013 9:02PM (EDT)

Tom Coburn   (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
Tom Coburn (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn is many things. He's a Republican, a doctor, a Southern Baptist Preacher and also a straight-up climate change denier.

That last one we know because he announced it. During a speech last night to the Tulsa Regional Chamber of Commerce, he defined himself thus: “I am a global warming denier. I don’t deny that.”

The Tulsa World, which recapped the highlights of Coburn's speech, played a bit loose with the quotation marks. But apparently, during the course of the evening Coburn also referred to himself as "a physician and a man of science," using the designation to then launch into an explanation of how the evidence points to the Earth moving into a "mini-ice age."

It was almost a win for self-awareness.


By Lindsay Abrams

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Climate Change Climate Skeptics Oklahoma Tod Coburn U.s. Senate