(Gray News) - Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) touted her political experience during a heated exchange with a group of young activists over climate change policy.
Video footage released Friday by the Sunrise Movement shows children and teenagers urging the senator to support signing the Green New Deal.
The group says it is a “movement of young people uniting to stop the climate crisis.”
The deal, a plan to combat climate change, has been backed by progressives such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Other Democrats have been hesitant to lend their support.
“OK, I’ll tell you what, we have our own Green New Deal,” Feinstein said when asked to vote yes for the Green New Deal.
A member of the group then told the senator that if climate issues aren’t addressed in the next decade, younger generations will face the effects.
The 85-year-old senator issued a stern response.
“I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I know what I’m doing,” Feinstein said. “You come in here and you say, ‘It has to be my way or the highway.’ I don’t respond to that.”
“I’ve gotten elected. I just ran. I was elected by almost a million vote plurality and I know what I’m doing. So maybe people should listen a little bit.”
Feinstein later released a statement on Twitter saying that the children were “heard loud and clear.”
“I have been and remain committed to doing everything I can to enact real, meaningful climate change legislation,” she said in the tweet.
Adults in the room told CNN they stayed for a calmer discussion with Feinstein after the children left.
Copyright 2019 Gray Television Group, Inc. All rights reserved.