Sen. John Cornyn suggested on Tuesday that his Democratic colleagues were overplaying the seriousness of climate change.
“It sounds to me like so many of our colleagues [are] like Chicken Little. ‘The sky is falling.’ I don’t think the facts justify it,” the Texas Republican said. “There are more important things we could do today and this week.”
{mosads}”Chicken Little” is a story, and more recently an animated movie, involving a chicken who thinks the world is ending.
Cornyn’s comments come after Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse spoke on the Senate floor about climate change, something the Rhode Island Democrat does on a weekly basis.
Whitehouse criticized his Republican colleagues suggesting that they are refusing to combat climate change because of pressure from influential outside groups.
“I find it a little frustrating these days because climate change used to be a bipartisan issue,” he added. “Then came Citizens United and all that dark money began to flow, all that fossil fuel money began to flow, all that Koch brother money began to flow.”
Whitehouse also spoke on the floor earlier Tuesday with other Senate Democrats, including Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).
During his floor speech he used a sign that sums up the Republican plan to combat climate change with the shruggie emoticon, ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
“I think it would probably be wise to take out the smile and put a little band you know over the mouth, so that it’s clear that nobody’s allowed to say a word,” he added, temporarily sticking a piece of tape over the mouth of the emoticon on the sign.