Trump denies calling climate change a hoax

Donald Trump on Monday sparred with Hillary Clinton over whether he has called climate change a hoax as they debated the nation’s energy policy.

Clinton said the United States should invest in clean energy, build up to half a billion solar panels and work toward powering every American home with clean energy.

{mosads}She predicted that “some country is going to be the clean energy superpower of the 20th century,” adding that, “Donald Trump thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.” 

Trump, interjected to say, “I did not. I do not say that.” 

In 2012, Trump sent a tweet: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” He has tweeted variations on that claim often, and he has spoken of his skepticism about climate change science during this year’s presidential campaign. 

Clinton responded, saying, “The science is real, and I think it’s important that we grip this and deal with this, both at home and abroad.” Her plan, she said, would create “a lot of jobs. That’s a lot of new economic activity.”

Trump said the United States has too much debt to invest in clean energy and called American energy policies “a disaster.”

“Our country is losing so much in terms of energy, in terms of paying off our debt,” he said. “We can’t do what you’re looking to do with $20 trillion in debt.”