Bernie Sanders is good friends with Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, but that doesn’t mean they will be throwing snowballs together on the Senate floor any time soon.
Sanders was a little hesitant to mention Inhofe’s name during a Sunday night CNN town hall in Ohio. “If I told you the Republican I liked the most it would probably ruin his political career,” he told host Jake Tapper.
“Jim is a climate change denier, he is really, really conservative,” Sanders said. “But you know what, he is a descent guy and I like him. And he and I are friends.”
Inhofe drew mockery in 2014 for bringing a snowball onto the Senate floor to question the idea that the Earth’s climate was warming due to human activity, in a scientifically dubious effort to deny global warming by pointing out cold weather occurs in winter. Inhofe has also called global warming a hoax.
Sanders agrees with many scientists that the climate is changing due to the burning of fossil fuels, and backs action to combat it. Inhofe is one of Capitol Hill’s most staunch opponents of President Obama’s robust climate change agenda.
Combating climate change is a key pillar of Sanders’ presidential agenda.
But “just because you have significant political differences doesn’t mean you can’t develop friendships with good people,” Sanders said.
