[ad_1]
Copyright of the image
Getty Images
Wilbur Ross attends NOAA briefing on 2019 hurricane season
US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has been asked to resign after apparently threatening weather authorities who have contradicted President Donald Trump.
Mr Ross' agency denied intervening in #sharpiegate, the political storm surrounding Mr Trump's erroneous assertion that Hurricane Dorian could hit Alabama.
Alabama was originally to be touched by Dorian, but was not before the time Mr. Trump said it.
The hurricane hit the Bahamas, killing at least 50 people.
- The scale of devastation hurricanes Bahamas emerges
Copyright of the image
Getty Images
The black loop seems to have been added to include Alabama in the projected course of the storm
What is the row?
In an Oversight Office briefing last Wednesday, Trump informed the US public of the approach of the storm, showing a six-day forecast map presented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as of Aug. 29. .
The map looked almost identical to the official NOAA map of that day, but the map displayed by Mr. Trump had a black loop marked around Alabama that was not on the original version.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley later confirmed that the map had been modified with a black felt pen, known as "sharpie" in the United States, but he did not did not specify who made the change.
In previous days, Mr. Trump had repeatedly stated that Alabama would be hit by the storm.
However, the National Weather Service (NWS) of Birmingham, Ala., Tweeted that the state's southern US "would see no impact from Dorian".
The reporters said Mr. Trump was incorrect, irritating the president.
How would Wilbur Ross have been involved?
NWS and NOAA both report to the US Department of Commerce, overseen by Mr. Ross.
On Monday, the New York Times reported that Mr. Ross telephoned Friday in meetings in Greece, threatening to fire high NOAA employees unless they publicly support Mr. Trump's position.
The paper says the threat is what motivated an unsigned statement from NOAA later in the day, claiming that Hurricane Dorian "could touch Alabama" and criticizing Birmingham's NWS tweet as " inconsistent with the probabilities of the best forecast products available at the time ".
A spokesman for the Department of Commerce said the New York Times story was false.
"Secretary Ross has threatened to fire any NOAA member because of forecasts and public statements regarding Hurricane Dorian," the spokesman said.
The Office of the Inspector General of the Commerce Department is currently reviewing the NOAA statement, according to the New York Times.
Multimedia playback is not supported on your device
Who calls Wilbur Ross to resign?
Democratic lawmaker Don Beyer called on Ross to resign for "his direct attacks on scientists and federal employees, whom he threatened to fire for doing their job by accurately reporting the weather."
The Virginia congressman described the episode as "embarrassing new news for a member of this [presidential] historically venal and incompetent cabinet ".
The Sierra Club, an environmental group, echoed the calls made to Ross.
The organization called the Commerce Secretary's alleged intercession of "shameful abuse of power", saying he "threatened to sow panic just to protect Trump."
New York Democrat Congressman Paul Tonko said Ross had "endangered the safety of countless Americans by compromising the American hurricane warning system, just to protect the US." ego of the president ".
Another Democratic lawmaker, Jim Himes, of Connecticut, told CNN if the report was true "it would be the most blatant use of an official position at the service of the ego and fortune. President's policy we have ever seen ".
Republican Senator John Thune, a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, did not join in the calls for Ross's resignation, but said it would be inappropriate for the Secretary of Commerce to threaten the officials.
"We want the weather service to work with integrity and without bias," he told CNN.
[ad_2]
Source link