Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) compared one of President Trump's nominees to a horse Wednesday at a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee meeting. Really.
Kathleen Hartnett White, nominated to be a member of the Council on Environmental Quality, was the target of Whitehouse's strange comparison.
“There is a popular legend of the Emperor Caligula appointing his horse to the Roman Senate," Whitehouse said during the meeting. "Had he done that, it would have raised important questions but the real questions would not have been about the horse. The horse was just a horse. The real questions would have been about the Emperor Caligula and the spine of the Roman Senate. Discussing the merits of the horse would be pointless. Approving this nominee for CEQ would be so preposterous that it would be like appointing Caligula’s horse. In that the real question becomes about the power of our fossil fuel emperors and the spine of the Senate.”
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) berated his Democratic colleague for the inappropriate comparison.
“Let me just say that comparing Ms. White to a horse, as one of our Democrat colleagues just did, to me is a new low. It’s disturbing, it’s demeaning, and it’s dehumanizing.”
A group of 300 scientists have signed a letter of opposition to White's nomination, arguing she has a history of rejecting mainstream climate science.
Despite the Democratic insults and opposition from the science community, White's nomination was advanced to the full Senate.