Trump interior secretary pick on climate change: 'I don’t believe it’s a hoax'

Ryan Zinke distanced himself from the president-elect in confirmation hearing: 'The climate is changing. The debate is what is that influence and what can we do'

Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of interior, Ryan Zinke, distanced himself from the president-elect on Tuesday, saying "the climate is changing. The debate is what is that influence and what can we do".

Zinke, a two-term congressman for Montana, had been asked by Bernie Sanders about Trump's infamous 2012 tweet where the real estate developer described climate change as "created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive".