Having watched this a few times, I’ve decided that it’s deadpan humor. It can’t be that he would seriously ask some federal official whether her agency knows how to alter the planet’s trajectory. He was being sarcastic to make the point that climate change is beyond man’s powers to influence, the same way righties mocked Obama in 2008 for boasting that he’d somehow reverse the rising tides. We’re not going to cool the Earth by cutting emissions, Gohmert is suggesting. Nothing short of changing the orbits of celestial bodies will do it.

Or … I’m wrong and he really is asking earnestly. “Stop being evasive, ma’am. Yes or no: Can Park Rangers change the laws of time and space or can’t they?”

He and Hank Johnson should debate whether the Forest Service is capable of tipping Guam over.

ORBITS: Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) asks whether the Forest Service or the BLM can alter the orbit of the moon or the Earth in order to fight climate change during a House Natural Resources hearing pic.twitter.com/yYiOyi2cMZ

— Forbes (@Forbes) June 8, 2021

If he was trolling, he stayed in character on social media this afternoon. His only response to the uproar over the Q&A was to clarify that the abbreviation “BLM” in a transcript of his comments didn’t refer to “Black Lives Matter.”

Exceedingly devious how you hid the context with an ellipses in your tweet. The hearing was about the BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT & climate change.

BLM stands for the BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT. #FakeNews https://t.co/WyIio5BQJM

— Louie Gohmert (@replouiegohmert) June 9, 2021

If you’re curious, his point has to do with what are known as Milankovitch cycles, how the Earth’s orbit gradually changes from circular to elliptical and back over the course of many thousands of years. Some climate-change skeptics hypothesize that that’s what’s driving rising temperatures. To which NASA says: Nope. The climate wouldn’t warm as quickly as it has due to Milankovitch cycles.

I’ll leave you with this, evidence that even if Gohmert was dead serious, his question still wouldn’t be the dumbest thing that’s happened today.

Wow. An anti-vaccine nurse in Ohio tried to prove the Vaccines Cause Magnetism theory in an state legislative committee. The demonstration did not go to plan pic.twitter.com/0ubELst4E8

— Tyler Buchanan (@Tylerjoelb) June 9, 2021