--- title: Video: Feinstein Lectures Kids Who Support Green New Deal description: A video of an exchange between Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a group of children expressing support for the Green New Deal has gone viral. canonical: https://time.com/5535979/feinstein-green-new-deal/ author: Tara Law article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-23T16:59:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:23:19.950Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sen. Feinstein Criticized for 'Disrespect' When Meeting Kids Who Support Green New Deal og:description: Feinstein repeatedly tells the children that there is "no way to pay" for the plan og:url: https://time.com/5535979/feinstein-green-new-deal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3bac59fd5549601f/698945b586f68ed7766eb681/dianne-feinstein.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Diane-Feinstein og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sen. Feinstein Criticized for 'Disrespect' When Meeting Kids Who Support Green New Deal twitter:description: Feinstein repeatedly tells the children that there is "no way to pay" for the plan twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3bac59fd5549601f/698945b586f68ed7766eb681/dianne-feinstein.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sen. Feinstein Criticized for 'Disrespect' When Meeting Kids Who Support Green New Deal > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=974247b9-3c3f-4557-9326-6a0b00fd3d63&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Sen. Feinstein Criticized for “Smugness” and “Disrespect” When Meeting Kids Who Support Green New Deal [Watch (HLS stream): Sen. Feinstein Criticized for “Smugness” and “Disrespect” When Meeting Kids Who Support Green New Deal](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/30fRsHMn.m3u8) (3:42)  _Published 2019-02-23. Sen. Feinstein Criticized for “Smugness” and “Disrespect” When Meeting Kids Who Support Green New Deal_  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Feb 23, 2019 4:59 PM UTC Sen. Feinstein Criticized for “Smugness” and “Disrespect” When Meeting Kids Who Support Green New Deal  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Feb 23, 2019 4:59 PM UTC A video of an uncomfortable exchange between Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a group of visiting children and adolescents expressing their support for the Green New Deal has gone viral. The youth, who were students from around the Bay Area, dropped by Feinstein’s office on Friday to present her with a letter urging her to support the bill, which was initially proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Edward J. Markey. The [Green New Deal](https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/sites/ocasio-cortez.house.gov/files/Resolution%20on%20a%20Green%20New%20Deal.pdf) is a comprehensive plan which includes switching the entire county’s electricity to power sources that are renewable and have no emissions, making the country’s buildings more energy efficient and investing in electric vehicles and high-speed rail. The environmental activist group, Sunrise Movement, released the video of the confrontation and tweeted that the California senator treated the group of about 15 young people with “smugness” and “disrespect.” In the 15-minute version of the video, the children tell Feinstein that they’ve come to her to express their support for the Green New Deal. Feinstein repeatedly tells the children that there is “no way to pay” for the plan, and tells the children that she is supporting her own resolution. As the kids continue to push back at her, urging her to vote “yes” on the Green New Deal even if it is unlikely to pass, Feinstein becomes visibly frustrated and starts to talk over the group. “You know what’s interesting about this group? I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I know what I’m doing,” Feinstein says. “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. I know what I’m doing. So maybe people should listen a little bit.” When a teen tells Feinstein that she should listen to them, because they are her voters, Feinstein responds by asking the girl how old she is. When the girl responds that she is 16, Feinstein says, “Well you didn’t vote for me.” She says to the group, “You know better than I do, so maybe one day you should run for the Senate and then you do it your way. In the meantime I just won a big election.” Soon afterward, people who appear to be Feinstein’s aides hustle the children out of her office. Feinstein refuses to allow the group to read their letter to her, telling them that she “can read” and doesn’t have the time to listen to them. As the group leaves the office, a young woman turns to the camera. “We were met with a fair amount of condescension, to be perfectly honest,” the woman says. Feinstein’s behavior was met with a swell of condemnation online. While some wrote that a shortened version of the video made Feinstein’s conduct look worse than she had actually behaved, others said that the full version of the video was just as damning. > [](https://twitter.com/emilynussbaum/status/1099150554775908352) > [](https://twitter.com/Nettie%5FBergin/status/1099330500156628992) > [](https://twitter.com/VarshPrakash/status/1099315356030722048) Feinstein responded to the incident later on Friday in a statement, which she released on Twitter. “This morning I spoke with a small group of children, young adults and parents from the Sunrise Movement, who were delivering a letter in support of the Green New Deal resolution. Unfortunately, it was a brief meeting but I want the children to know they were heard loud and clear. I have been and remain committed to doing everything I can to enact real, meaningful climate change legislation,” Feinstein wrote. The Sunrise Movement released their own statement on Twitter, writing that Feinstein showed “stale, establishment thinking.” “Sen. Feinstein seems stuck in the past. But we are going forward, one way or another,” the group wrote. > [](https://twitter.com/sunrisemvmt/status/1099075460649107458) > [](https://twitter.com/SenFeinstein/status/1099134977885769728) > [](https://twitter.com/sunrisebayarea/status/1099083527360892928) ## Transcript We are trying to ask you to vote yes on the Green New Deal. Please. Okay, I will tell you what, we have our own Green New Deal piece of legislation. Why don't you call back, see if they can fax one out. Make a copy for each person. Well we're trying to- Okay? We're trying to promote the Green New Deal Well, there are reasons why I can't, cuz there's no way to pay for it. Yes, there is. That's the big reasons. We have tons of money going to military, a lot of it is going to military. Well, I understand that. The United States government does a lot of things with the money, and they're important things. And you just can't go in and say, okay we gonna take hundreds of millions from here and hundreds of millions from there. It just doesn't work that way. We're gonna get to a copy But we have to come to appoint where our earth is dying literary. And it is gonna be a pricey and ambitious plan that is needed to Deal with the magnitude of that issue. And so we're here asking you to vote yes on the resolution for the Green New Deal because that is the only thing- That resolution will not pass the Senate and you can take that back to whoever sent you here and tell them. Why do you think it won't pass? Because it doesn't have a single Republican vote. And the Republicans control the United States Senate. So we are a minority on the Democratic side. So the key to good legislation is to tailor something that you write so that it can pass and you can get a step ahead. Some scientists Had said that we have 12 years to turn this around. Well, it's not gonna get turned around in ten years. What we can do is put ourselves- Senator, if this doesn't get turned around in ten years, you're looking at the faces of the people who are gonna be living with these consequences and- The government is supposed to be for the people and by the people and all for the people. You know what's interesting Interesting about this group is I've been doing this for 30 years. I know what I'm doing. 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, you know, maybe people should listen a little bit and- [ CROSSTALK ] This is what, can we staple the pages together? I hear what you're saying, but we're the people who voted you You're supposed to listen to us. That's your- How old are you, [ UNKNOWN ]? I'm 16, I can't vote. You didn't vote for me. Well she voted [ CROSSTALK ] It doesn't matter, we're the ones who are gonna be impacted. Words mean something, words mean something. It doesn't matter, we're gonna be the one who's impacted. I understand. You represent all That- People in your district- I have seven grandchildren- Whether they voted for you or not- I understand it very well and- Senator the cost of not taking this action is far higher than the cost of what the Green New Deal will be and there is enourmous- Here's what- Popularity for this bill- Okay. Around the whole country. Here's what we are proposing- And we're asking you to be brave and do this for us and for your grandchildren. Go get enough for everybody. Here is what I do propose and here is the resolution that I think has a chance to pass. So will give each of you a copy, you can take a look at it. 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