National security adviser H.R. McMaster bashed the Paris climate change deal after denying The Wall Street Journal's report that the Trump administration might reverse course and stay in the accord. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo McMaster rejects report U.S. will remain in Paris deal as 'false'

National security adviser H.R. McMaster on Sunday shot down a Wall Street Journal story reporting that the U.S. would remain in the Paris climate accord despite President Donald Trump's announcement in June that he would pull the country out.

"That's a false report," McMaster told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday." "The president decided to pull out of the Paris accord because it was a bad deal for the American people and a bad deal for the environment."


The Journal reported Saturday that Trump administration officials at a climate summit in Montreal had said the U.S. wouldn't leave the accord after all, citing multiple officials there. "U.S. officials in Montreal, led by White House senior adviser Everett Eissenstat, broached revising U.S. climate-change goals, two participants said, signaling a compromise that would keep the U.S. at the table even if it meant weakening the international effort," The Journal's Emre Peker reported.

But McMaster bashed the Paris deal after denying The Journal's story.

"It gave the worst polluters the ability to continue polluting and emitting carbon without significantly reducing those levels," McMaster said on "Fox News Sunday." "The president is committed to the cleanest water on Earth, the cleanest air on Earth, to an energy policy that reduces carbon emissions but then also provides clean fossil fuels to generate growth in this country and globally."

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McMaster was more equivocal in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week." Asked whether the U.S. would remain in the accord if the administration can negotiate better terms before 2020 — the earliest the U.S. can quit the accord under the terms of the deal — McMaster said it was a possibility.

"If there's an agreement that benefits the American people, certainly," he said.