Schoolchildren confront Dianne Feinstein about Green New Deal

Senator Dianne Feinstein had a difficult confrontation with a group of school children following the long-time Senator's refusal to support the Green New Deal.

In a video posted on Twitter and Facebook by the Sunrise Movement, an organization that encourages young people to fight against climate change, the California Democrat takes a stern tone with the ten children who had gathered in his office Friday to ask him to support the new ambitious resolution against climate change.

"There is no way to pay for it," Feinstein tells the group of children aged 7 to 16. "I do not agree with what the resolution says. That's part of it. "

"We have tons of money going to [the] military, "a girl interjected.

"This resolution will not be passed by the Senate, and you can pass it on to anyone who sent you here and tell them," said Feinstein. "I have been in the Senate for over a quarter century and I know what can happen and I do not know what can not happen."

The edited video of the exchange, in which Feinstein seems to be indifferent to the concerns of young children, quickly became viral before the weekend. In the clip, Feinstein seems bristling to children and emphasizes that she does not do it. to have to yield to their demands – his job is to represent his constituents, and it will take several election cycles in the Senate for these children to be able to vote.

The full version of the video, however, paints a larger picture. Feinstein still has not been very successful, but she is clearly engaging with the children – at one point she even discussed the internship opportunities offered to one of the older activists in the group.

The issue is the Green New Deal, a global plan on climate change championed by New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who this month presented a resolution with Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts. As it stands, the Green New Deal is a general mission statement that sets priorities to aggressively fight climate change, but it is crucial that it is not a strict political or legislative element. . The resolution outlines a 10-year plan to achieve net net greenhouse gas emissions and focuses on the federal government's massive investments in green infrastructure to create jobs and jobs. mitigate climate change.

The Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, is expected to put the resolution to a vote as early as next week – not because he agrees with it, but because that would risk causing a break in the Democratic Party. Almost all of the biggest candidates in 2020 are co-authors, but some moderate Democrats, like Feinstein, have been reluctant to subscribe to what is basically an argument for radical change. Any vote on this general mission statement would force both groups to be heard a resolution that has its flaws – do not mention a few failures in recent weeks.

Feinstein is one of many Democrats on the fence that followed the tumultuous deployment of the resolution. When confronted by Sunrise Movement activists on Friday morning, Feinstein remained adamant that the resolution was flawed and was unlikely to get the Senate through. Instead, she handed the group drafts of her own proposal, which would take a less aggressive approach to lowering carbon levels.

"I've been doing this for 30 years," Feinstein told the group. "I know what I'm doing, you come here and you say it must be my way or the highway, I do not answer that."

Feinstein then issued a statement qualifying the "animated discussion" interaction. She added that children should know that they "have been heard loud and clear".