alone. they are on their own shrinking island. reporter: the president started the trip renaming mt. mckinley denali. next, he will see the effects of climate thing first hand. he will tour the melting glaciers with bear grylls. they will talk about global warming and later this week, he will travel to northern alaska to be the first president to visit the arctic to hear from fishermen. a white house official described this as a signature trip of the obama presidency. he is that passionate about this issue. john. beautiful pictures. jim, thank you. two of ohio s politicians furious with president obama for renaming mt. mckinley to denali. house speaker john boehner and
from politicians in mckinley s home state of ohio. that s right. jake. a different kind of warming here in alaska. president obama began this trip with a splash by renaming mt. mckinley denali in honor of the native people this state. it was announced ahead of the three-day jurn toy alaska. it s aimed at sounding the alarm on climate change. jake, there s no controversy here in alaska. the state s two republican senators as well as the governor have all endorsed renaming this mountain alaskans have fought for this to happen for years, knowing that it was a gold prospector who named it after president mckinley who never set foot in the state. members of congress from mckinley s home state of ohio don t see it that way. house speaker john boehner released a statement saying, there is a reason president mckinley s name served atop the highest peak in north america for more than 100 years. that is because it is a testament to his great legacy. i am deeply disappointed in this decision. j
segment talking about the rising sea levels, all the signs that people see, including the permafrost. a lot of alaska on the frozen ground and communities going to have to move that are in the preparation stages of doing that. because of the changes to the temperature. a lot of environmentalists say that he s hypocritical coming here and just last week he approved a lease for shell to drill off the northwest coast and they say you can t do something to promote fossil fuels which is a contributor to climate change and then come here and say that you are the president who s going to fight climate change and that by the way not the only controversy here. just yesterday, the announcement made by the white house that the highest peak on the continent, moubt mckinley, named for former president mckinley changing to denali. something members of the alaska delegation and native alaskans had been fighting for since 1975
welcome back to the lead. i m jake tapper. in our national lead. let s start with a trivia question. what is the highest peak in north america? did you guess mt. mckinley in alaska? i m sorry. that answer would have been correct until today. why? well, today president obama officially renamed the 20,000 foot natural wonder which until today honored william mckinley, our 25th president. it s now named denali, which was its original name and what native alaskans call it. this comes as the president pushes a climate agenda during a swing. the first visit to the arctic by a sitting president. not everyone is pleased with the name change. let s get to jim acosta traveling with the president in anchorage. mr. obama catching a lot of heat
in congress as well know, luke, and the politically powerful ohio delegation held on all these years and the president said it is appropriate to return it to the name that it had always been before a gold prospector changed it and to what native alaskans and alaskans always called it and that s denali. luke? thank you so much. still ahead, the same iowa poll that shows donald trump and ben carson gaining shows scott walker slumping. what happened to walker? we ll look at why the one-time front-runner in iowa is fighting to keep up. you exercise.