As we all know, Senator Jim Inhofe is arguably the loudest climate change denier in the Senate. The Oklahoma Republican proved it on Thursday, when he toted a bagful of snowballs to the Senate floor and tossed one in hopes of proving that climate change is a hoax. In the process, he made himself look like a complete fool. Later in the day, Inhofe was thoroughly sliced, diced, and julienned on the Senate floor by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. The Rhode Island Democrat pointed out that in order to deny that climate change is real, you’d have to take the word of “the Senator With A Snowball” over a host of sources, including every legitimate scientific society in this country.
Well, Inhofe finally gave a response two days later. Apparently he was afraid of being called out for his shameful display, because he gave it on “Fox & Friends.” Watch here.
Inhofe doubled down on his view that there is no such thing as climate change. He noted that Tuesday’s edition of The Washington Post noted that 67 record lows were set the previous day, and added that there’s snow on the ground even in his hometown of Tulsa. When Tucker Carlson asked why there wasn’t more of a debate on climate change, Inhofe said that since 2002, climate change has dwindled from the second-most important issue to Americans to the 14th out of 15 issues–an indication that the only reason we’re even talking about it is that “the far left” is trying to get it back into the national conversation.
Apparently Inhofe was referring to a March 2014 Gallup Poll which found that only 24 percent of Americans considered climate change. You have to take that with a generous helping of salt, however–it was actually the first time Gallup included climate change in its annual March Environment survey. It’s hard to believe that Inhofe didn’t know this, since at the time he was ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee–a panel of which he is now the chairman. But then again, that’s to be expected when you have a raving climate-change denier as chairman of a committee charged with oversight of our environmental policy.
The most telling thing about this exchange was something that wasn’t mentioned. This piece took just over four minutes–and not even once did Carlson, Anna Kooiman or Clayton Morris ask him about Whitehouse’s blistering response to his snowball speech. For those who missed it, Whitehouse pointed out that the recent cold wave–the same thing that caused all those record lows Inhofe talked about–is partly due to a polar vortex being pushed southward by warmer ocean temperatures. How could the trio on the couch not have asked something this basic? I know not to expect much in the way of actual journalism from any Fox News show, but frankly, this is embarrassing.
Then again, Inhofe probably had this planned when he decided to go on this show to give his first major interview since Thursday. He no doubt knew he’d be getting questions that were considerably softer than the snowballs he had on hand. Looks like he got his wish. Fortunately, the rest of us know that Whitehouse spoke for most of the nation when he told Inhofe that he was full of it.
