A group of children confronted Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Friday morning, demanding she vote for the Green New Deal.
But the senator wasn’t having it.
“You know what’s interesting about this group? I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I know what I’m doing. You come in here, and you say, ‘It has to be my way or the highway.’ I don’t respond to that. I’ve gotten elected. I just ran. I was elected by almost a million-vote plurality, and I know what I’m doing. Maybe people should listen a little bit,” the California Democrat said.
A heavily edited video of the encounter outside the Democrat’s San Francisco office was posted on Twitter by Sunrise Movement, a progressive climate advocacy group. The group posted a full version of the 14-minute discussion on its Facebook page.
Feinstein told the group that the resolution was not sustainable because there was no way to pay for it and it would get no support from Republican lawmakers.
As the group continued to pressure her, Feinstein, who has not committed to supporting the environmental proposal being pushed by the Democratic Party’s most progressive members, told the group she knows more than they do.
When a teenager told Feinstein that part of her duties as an elected leader was listening to her constituents, Feinstein asked how old the girl was.
“I’m 16, I can’t vote,” the girl told her.
“Well, you didn’t vote for me,” Feinstein responded.
When the senator told the group of children, ranging in ages from 7 to 16, that she’s in favor of an alternative that does not go as far as the Green New Deal, an older member of the group told her it’s not good enough.
“Well, you know better than I do. So, I think that one day you should run for the Senate. And then, you do it your way,” Feinstein said. “In the meantime, I just won a big election.”
This is how @SenFeinstein reacted to children asking her to support the #GreenNewDeal resolution — with smugness + disrespect.
This is a fight for our generation’s survival. Her reaction is why young people desperately want new leadership in Congress. pic.twitter.com/0zAkaxruMI
— Sunrise Movement ? (@sunrisemvmt) February 22, 2019
Feinstein said hours later she gave the group a draft of her resolution with specifics on how to combat climate change. The senator did not provide those specifics in her statement, but said she planned to reveal the resolution soon.
“Unfortunately, it was a brief meeting but I want the children to know they were heard loud and clear. I have been and remain committed to doing everything I can to enact real, meaningful climate change legislation,” she said.
