http://www.iflscience.com/environment/epa-chief-scott-pruitt-science-dictate-policy/
You know the drill. The head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt, has been asked about something scientific and has said something ludicrous in response.
Shortly after announcing that he wants climate researchers to debate climate deniers on live TV, he gave a characteristically painful interview to a Texas radio show. Just after appearing to endorse peer-reviewed science, he added that science should not be something thats just thrown about to try and dictate policy in Washington DC.
When people like Pruitt say that science should stay out of politics, its immediately clear that they have an ulterior motive other than concern about the dilution of one or the other. This type of phrase is wielded by those who are unhappy that science is pointing something out to them that they dislike.
Very few people looked up at the solar eclipse and thought that science was a junk field of academia. Plenty of those with vested interests do, however, consider climate science and vaccines to be incredibly suspect. The reason why is incredibly simple: Acceptance of an eclipse probably doesnt lose this administration votes, but acceptance of climate science does.
So is it any surprise that the Trump administration is doing all it can to destroy the reputation of scientists and the scientific method at any opportunity? Of course not but it doesnt make it any less outrageous.