Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary and former lunch buddy to Jeffrey Epstein, hit up CNBC on Wednesday to lie about the environmental costs of data centers. He also dismissed questions about government corruption as “minor stuff.”
“One of my favorite things is when people talk about data centers using water,” Lutnick said when asked about the general dislike Americans have for the server warehouses. “The No. 1 product in America that uses water is cattle. I mean, data centers don’t use water. The data centers—this is propaganda by our adversaries to try to slow us down, right?”
Coincidentally (see: not coincidentally at all), Cantor Fitzgerald, which Lutnick used to run, is heavily invested in data center projects. Though Lutnick transferred his ownership stake in the company to his kids right before becoming commerce secretary, Cantor Fitzgerald has been making all kinds of big money since he became part of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
Also in the interview, conservative CNBC host Joe Kernen mangled a softball question about Lutnick’s former company receiving federal money to help finance a government deal with a rare mineral startup.
“My kids bought my companies from me,” Lutnick replied. “They own it, and I had nothing to do with that decision, and this is minor stuff anyway.”
There is a chance that Lutnick’s comments are more telling than they initially seem. According to Wired, Lutnick’s kids essentially made a bet that Trump’s trade tariffs would be struck down in court, and are now set to make big bucks from the tariff refund program, which most Americans will never see a dime from.
“Minor stuff,” really.
Published with permission of Daily Kos
