Senator and climate change denier James Inhofe from Oklahoma dies at the age of 89

Longtime Oklahoma Senator James M. Inhofe, who snowballed on the Senate floor to argue that climate science was a “hoax,” has died at the age of 89.

The Conservative MP suffered a stroke over the July 4 weekend and died on Tuesday, his family said in a media statement.

Inhofe retired from politics in 2023 after being re-elected in 2020 to the Senate seat he first won in 1994. That term made him the longest-serving senator from the Sooner State. Inhofe previously served in the House of Representatives from 1987 to 1994.

Inhofe, an Army veteran and licensed pilot, chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee after his fellow Republican pilot, Senator John McCain of Arizona, died in 2018.

Veteran Senator Mitch McConnell mourned Inhofe in a statement on Tuesday, recalling his former colleague’s “consistent focus on expanding and modernizing the U.S. military.”

He noted that Inhofe’s reliability lived up to his middle name, Mountain.

Inhofe was a staunch conservative who once said that scientific claims that humans are contributing to climate change were “the biggest hoax ever sold to the American people.”

In February 2015, he brought a snowball to the U.S. Capitol and wondered aloud why scientists were worried about global warming when it was freezing cold outside.

Inhofe was also a MAGA enthusiast who distinguished himself from louder Republicans by voting to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in the presidential election. He voted against convicting Trump in the unprecedented impeachment trials of the 45th president in 2019 and 2021.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who celebrated his 69th birthday on Tuesday, was saddened by the death of his good friend and former colleague.

“Jim was highly respected on both sides of the aisle and made a profound impact on our military and national security,” Graham posted on social media. “My condolences to his wonderful family and many friends.”

Inhofe is survived by his wife, Kay, and three of their children. His son, Dr. Perry Dyson Inhofe II, died in a plane crash near Tulsa in 2013.

With News Wire Services