Bernie Sanders: Trump weather map incident 'outrageous' and it shows 'authoritarian' impulses

CEDAR RAPIDS, Ia. — President Donald Trump showing a scribbled-on hurricane path on an official weather service map is “ludicrous and outrageous," but also a sign of “moving the country in an authoritarian direction,” U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said in an interview with the Des Moines Register.

Sanders, of Vermont, was in Ames, Iowa, for the first of three rallies at each of Iowa’s public universities when he first mentioned the incident. Chuckles initially rippled through the crowd, but Sanders didn't linger like it was a punchline. Instead, it's an example of Trump bending nonpolitical entities to his whims, Sanders said. Sanders is seeking the Democratic nomination for president.

“It's one thing for a president to draw a line on a map, that's totally absurd,” Sanders said in the interview. “But then to have the appropriate agency kind of back him up, that speaks to the authoritarian type of government that Trump is moving us to."

Trump tweeted on Sept. 1 that Hurricane Dorian was set to reach as far as Alabama when it made landfall. Forecasts at that point showed the storm moving sharply north, avoiding Alabama.

The tweet spurred an immediate response from the Birmingham, Alabama, office of the National Weather Service saying Alabama wouldn't feel Dorian's effects. It led to a multi-day spat where Trump refused to give ground and presented an altered weather service forecast map to bolster his position.

On Wednesday, Trump showed reporters in the White House a map that projected the storm’s path with white lines. A black marker was reportedly used to extend its path into Alabama. Forecasters did not predict the storm would hit Alabama when Trump tweeted his initial warning or when the map was presented.

On Friday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the National Weather Service, issued an unattributed statement backing up Trump and disavowing the tweet from Birmingham, Alabama. The local agency spoke “in absolute terms that were inconsistent” with the probabilities outlined in forecasts, the statement reads.

“This is how much of a pathological liar he is,” Sanders told a crowd of about 500 at Iowa State University on Sunday. “Did you all see his famous black Sharpie?”

Chuckles rippled through the crowd, but Sanders did not pause for laughter.

“What was really scary about that, he got the appropriate agency, the NOAA, to change their views in order to correspond with his,” Sanders continued. “And that's what authoritarianism is about. You do what the guy on top wants, not what the facts are about."

Sanders went further in an interview with the Register Monday. Regardless of your politics, he said, people should not want “a president who is moving this country forward into an authoritarian direction and who is, in fact, a pathological liar."

 “The function of the agency (at) hand is to give the American people accurate and important information on weather, storms and hurricanes, and not simply say what the president of the United States said is right,” Sanders said. “So both of those factors, concerning what the president did, was ludicrous and outrageous. But it is even more frightening that we have an agency of government whose job is to provide incredibly important information to the American people backing up the president even when he's dead wrong."

Nick Coltrain is a politics and data reporter for the Register. Reach him at ncoltrain@registermedia.com or at 515-284-8361. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Subscribe today at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal.