Climate Change Skeptic and Former Senator Jim Inhofe Dead at 89

(TargetDailyNews.com) – Longtime Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma died on July 9th after suffering a stroke on Independence Day, his family reports.

The longest-serving U.S. Senator from his state, Inhofe started out as the mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s second-largest city. From there he went on to serve six years in the U.S. House before successfully landing a Senate seat in 1994. He served in the Senate until he retired in 2023, citing the long-term effects of a Covid infection.

He stuck it out for a long time, even after having quadruple bypass heart surgery in 2013. After that, he earned a fourth and fifth term in the Senate.

Inhofe was famous for chiding the idea that humans had more control over the weather than God. He was an enthusiastic thorn in the side of environmental activists, pushing back on President Bill Clinton’s 1990s clean air reforms, and telling climate scientists and activists that he did not believe their claims.

His most well-known stunt took place in 2015 when he tossed a snowball onto the Senate floor to deride the idea of global warming, which he called “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” During that incident, Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse pushed back in a way that would sound familiar to 2024 readers: Whitehouse mocked Inhofe for not believing what we would today call “the science.”

In his private time, Inhofe was an enthusiastic pilot. In 1991 he flew around the world to recreate the path taken 60 years prior by trailblazing aviator Wiley Post. Not every flight was a success, though. In 2010 Inhofe landed at a rural Texas airport on a closed runway occupied by construction workers. Instead of facing legal action, he opted for a remedial aviation safety course.

Inhofe backed former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Inhofe’s 2020 re-election campaign, calling him an “incredible” supporter of Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda.

Inhofe is survived by his wife, Kay, and three children, Jimmy, Katy, and Molly. His son Perry, also a pilot, died in 2013 when his plane crashed in Oklahoma.

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