Senate Democrats decided to take a page out of Sen. Rand Paul’s playbook Monday night and stage a talk-a-thon about an issue they desperately want to capture the public’s attention — global warming.
Twenty-eight Democratic senators talked through the night on the senate floor, led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who has already spoken over 60 times on the senate floor about global warming to little fanfare.
“There’s a group of senators who have not given up on getting something done on climate change and aren’t willing to just sit quietly through the current status quo,” Whitehouse told CNN in a phone interview on Monday.
But in spite of the so-called “Climate Change Caucus’s” best efforts, their fellow lawmakers have not been eager to take up their pet issue, especially in an election year. Polling shows a growing amount of the public believe the entire issue of global warming is grossly exaggerated, and they certainly aren’t interested in placing the concerns of environmental groups over those of economic developers and job creators.
Gallup has been polling these issues for years. But not until the Obama Administration’s climate change push did the public backlash against the environmentalist movement really hit a tipping point.
A near-record number of Americans also believe the issue of climate change is being exaggerated, according to Gallup.
Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama took to the floor of the Senate this week and delivered a harsh critique of the Climate Change Caucus’s efforts. Sessions said their all night talk-a-thon was pointless, considering the fact that Democrats hold the majority and could bring legislation to address the issue if they wanted to act against the will of the American people.
“Why wouldn’t the Majority Leader bring a bill to the Senate floor to approve President Obama’s climate agenda?” Sessions asked. “[Because] the American people do not support this and neither does most of Congress.”
RELATED: Sessions blisters Obama Science Czar: Don’t advance a political agenda, tell us the facts!
Sessions also said the claims of global warming alarmists have escalated from exaggerations to outright misinformation.
“Exaggeration isn’t even a fair word to describe it,” he said. “It has become deliberate misinformation. … The climate is not warming faster than experts predicted as the president claimed.”
The full video of Sessions’ remarks can be seen below.
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