Noam Chomsky: Trump as president would be 'almost a death knell for the species'

Noam Chomsky has been casting this year's presidential election in life-or-death terms for the human species.

The famed linguist and political scientist last week gave a pair of interviews that painted a dire picture of U.S. politics -- which he said had been warped by a Republican Party bent on risking nuclear war and environmental devastation.

“The fact of the matter is that today’s Republican Party qualify as candidates for the most dangerous organization in human history,” Chomsky said in an interview with Democracy Now.

The former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said electing Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, could put the future of human existence at risk with his policies -- whatever they might be.

"It’s hard to say because we don’t really know what he thinks, and I’m not sure he knows what he thinks," Chomsky told The Guardian. "He’s perfectly capable of saying contradictory things at the same time."

"But there are some pretty stable elements of his ideology, if you can even grant him that concept," he continued. "One of them is: 'Climate change is not taking place.' As he puts it: 'Forget it.' And that’s almost a death knell for the species – not tomorrow, but the decisions we take now are going to affect things in a couple of decades, and in a couple of generations it could be catastrophic."

Chomsky, who has praised Bernie Sanders' policies, again repeated his assertion that he would the Republican candidate.

"If I were in a swing state, a state that matters, and the choice were Clinton or Trump, I would vote against Trump," Chomsky said. "And by arithmetic that means hold your nose and vote for Clinton."