Face in the News: Secretary of State John Kerry discusses the Climate Change Agreement; Sen. Richard Burr on the San Bernardino Investigation
WASHINGTON (CBS News) - This week's broadcast of "Face the Nation" came after nearly 200 countries signed on to a climate change agreement in hopes of averting a future global disaster. We spoke with Secretary of State, John Kerry, about the agreement and how it will affect the future of the energy sector. We also spoke with the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) about the latest on the San Bernardino attack.
On Sunday's broadcast of "Face the Nation," Secretary of State John Kerry hailed the new climate change agreement as a "breakaway agreement," and stated that the agreement will change the way businesses make judgments on climate change.
"The business community of the entire world is receiving a message about countries now moving towards clean alternative renewable energy and trying to reduce their carbon footprint." The Secretary said. Kerry also noted that, "American ingenuity and creativity," are needed in order to really solve the world's environmental problems.
"Face the Nation" host John Dickerson asked Kerry what type of message this agreement will send to the energy industry. While the Secretary acknowledged that we will continue "pumping gas and using gas and oil for years to come," Kerry also asserted that we are beginning to see changes.
"There's a transformation taking place and people need to diversify, people need to look for cleaner ways of doing things. We commit a fair amount of money to the effort to find clean coal. And if we can burn coal in a clean way, then coal could continually have a future under those circumstances, depending on the price."
John also asked the Secretary of State about Donald Trump's call for a ban on muslims entering the country. Kerry said that kind of ban would be contrary to American values and the Constitution. Kerry also called the ban a "very dangerous foreign policy."
"It says to those in Islam who are trying to exploit people and recruit foreign fighters and otherwise, it says, look, look at America. Here they got a guy running for president who is waging war against Islam."
Our interview with the Secretary of State was covered by AP, USA Today, International Business Times, The Hill, The Seattle Times, The Daily Beast, The Chicago Tribune, The Huffington Post, AFP and The Boston Globe.
Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), also commented on Donald Trump's plan to prevent Muslim's from entering the country and called the plan a "huge mistake."
"I think that this sends the wrong message to people that have to be part of our partnership for a solution. And, yes, does serve as fuel." The North Carolina Senator said and added, "I'm not concerned about international. I'm concerned about radicalization here, from people who are already in the United States, and that does tend to fuel it."
Burr also spoke to John Dickerson about the current state of the San Bernardino investigation and said that investigators are trying to piece together the years leading up to the attack as well how our immigration process for spousal visas broke down.
"We want to look at how our immigration process for a visa for a spouse broke down, that they didn't notice the radicalization. And, more importantly, what we've got to know is who they might have had conversations with relative to their planning, access to the weapons." Burr said. The Senator also told Dickerson that encryption remains a growing problem with the intelligence community's ability to see inside the conversations of these individuals with people in the United States and abroad.
Our interview with Sen. Richard Burr made news in The Winston Salem Journal, Politico, The Wall Street Journal, The Hill, The San Bernardino Sun and Bloomberg.