Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe (R) denied on Tuesday that climate change was a factor in the devastating tornado that recently ripped through the suburbs of the state’s capital.
In an exclusive interview with Newsmax Inhofe took a shot at the liberal media that he sees “trying to exploit a tragedy to advance and expand its own agenda.”
Last week Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) took to the Senate floor to criticize his Republican colleagues for their denial of climate change, linking the Oklahama tornado among other natural disasters to the hot button issue. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) later also linked Oklahoma ‘cyclones’ to climate change in her own speech. Whitehouse later apologized for the timing of his remarks.
Inhofe said tornadoes have simply been a reality for the state over the years.
“We were being hit by tornadoes long before anyone talked about climate change, and even before it was called ‘global cooling,’ before it became ‘global warming,’ and then ‘climate change,'” Inhofe said. “The same thing that happened last week happened 14 years ago, 25 years ago, and 30 years ago.”
