Former US Sen. Jim Inhofe, top Republican defense voice, dies at 89

OKLAHOMA CITY — Former Sen. Jim Inhofe, a conservative firebrand known for his strong support of defense spending and his denial that human activity is responsible for the bulk of climate change, has died. He was 89.

Inhofe, a powerful fixture in Oklahoma politics for over six decades, died Tuesday morning after he had a stroke over the July Fourth holiday, his family said in a statement.

Inhofe, who was elected to a fifth Senate term in 2020, stepped down in early 2023 .

Inhofe frequently criticized the mainstream science that human activity contributed to changes in the Earth’s climate, once calling it “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”

In February 2015, with temperatures in the nation’s capital below freezing, Inhofe brought a snowball on to the Senate floor. He tossed it before claiming that environmentalists focus attention on global warming as it kept getting cold. “It’s very, very cold out. Very unseasonable,” Inhofe said.

As Oklahoma’s senior U.S. senator, Inhofe was a staunch supporter of the state’s five military installations and a vocal fan of congressional earmarks. The Army veteran and licensed pilot, who would fly himself to and from Washington, secured the federal money to fund local road and bridge projects, and criticized House Republicans who wanted a one-year moratorium on such pet projects in 2010.

“Defeating an earmark doesn’t save a nickel,” Inhofe told the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce that August. “It merely means that within the budget process, it goes right back to the bureaucracy.”

He was a strong backer of President Donald Trump, who praised him for his “incredible support of our #MAGA agenda” while endorsing the senator’s 2020 reelection bid. During the Trump administration, Inhofe served as chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee following the death of Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Inhofe caught national attention in March 2009 by introducing legislation that would have prevented detainees from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay from being relocated “anywhere on American soil.”

Closer to home, Inhofe helped secure millions of dollars to clean up a former mining hub in northeast Oklahoma that spent decades on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund list. In a massive buyout program, the federal government purchased homes and businesses within the 40-square-mile region of Tar Creek, where children consistently tested for dangerous levels of lead in their blood.

“This is an example of a government program created for a specific purpose and then dissolves after the job is completed. This is how government should work,” Inhofe said in December 2010, when the project was nearly complete.

In 2021, Inhofe defied some in his party by voting to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election, saying that to do otherwise would be a violation of his oath of office to support and defend the Constitution. He voted against convicting Trump at both of his impeachment trials.

Born James Mountain Inhofe on Nov. 17, 1934, in Des Moines, Iowa, Inhofe grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Tulsa in 1959. He served in the Army between 1956 and 1958, and was a businessman for three decades, serving as president of Quaker Life Insurance Co.

His political career began in 1966, when he was elected to the state House. Two years later he won an Oklahoma Senate seat that he held during unsuccessful runs for governor in 1974 and for the U.S. House in 1976. He then won three terms at Tulsa mayor starting in 1978.

Inhofe went on to win two terms in the U.S. House in the 1980s, before throwing his hat into a bitter U.S. Senate race when longtime Sen. David Boren resigned in 1994 to become president of the University of Oklahoma. Inhofe beat then-U.S. Rep. Dave McCurdy in a special election that year to serve the final two years of Boren’s term and was reelected five times.

Inhofe lived up to his reputation as a tough campaigner in his 2008 reelection bid against Democrat Andrew Rice, a 35-year-old state senator and former missionary. Inhofe claimed Rice was “too liberal” for Oklahoma and ran television ads that critics said contained anti-gay overtones, including one that showed a wedding cake topped by two plastic grooms and a photo of Rice as a young man wearing a leather jacket.

Rice, who has two children with his wife and earned his master’s degree from Harvard University Divinity School, accused Inhofe of distorting his record and attacking his character.

Inhofe’s bullish personality also was apparent outside politics. He was a commercial-rated pilot and flight instructor with more than 50 years of flying experience.

He made an emergency landing in Claremore in 1999, after his plane lost a propeller, an incident later blamed on an installation error. In 2006, his plane spun out of control upon landing in Tulsa; he and an aide escaped injury, though the plane was severely damaged.

In 2010, Inhofe landed his small plane on a closed runway at a rural South Texas airport while flying himself and others to a home he owned in South Padre Island. Runway workers scrambled, and Inhofe agreed to complete a remedial training program rather than face possible legal action.

“I’m 75 years old, but I still fly airplanes upside down,” Inhofe said in August 2010. “I don’t know why it is, but I don’t hurt anywhere, and I don’t feel any differently than I felt five years ago.”

Inhofe is survived by his wife, Kay, three children and several grandchildren. A son, Dr. Perry Dyson Inhofe II, died in November 2013, at the age of 51, when the twin-engine aircraft he was flying crashed a few miles north of Tulsa International Airport.

俄克拉荷马城——前参议员吉姆·英霍夫去世，享年89岁。他是一位保守派激进分子，以大力支持国防开支和否认人类活动是造成气候变化的主要原因而闻名。

俄克拉荷马州政坛举足轻重的人物英霍夫在政坛活跃了六十多年，他的家人在一份声明中表示，他在7月4日假期期间中风，于周二上午去世。

英霍夫于 2020 年当选连任第五届参议员，并于 2023 年初卸任。

英霍夫经常批评主流科学界关于人类活动导致地球气候变化的观点，他曾称之为“有史以来对美国人民犯下的最大骗局”。

2015年2月，首都华盛顿气温低于冰点，英霍夫带着一个雪球走进了参议院议事厅。他把雪球扔出去，然后声称环保主义者在天气持续寒冷的时候才关注全球变暖问题。“外面非常非常冷，非常反常，”英霍夫说道。

作为俄克拉荷马州资深联邦参议员，英霍夫坚定支持该州的五个军事基地，并积极倡导国会拨款。这位退伍老兵兼持证飞行员经常亲自往返华盛顿，成功争取到联邦资金用于当地的道路和桥梁建设项目，并批评了2010年试图暂停此类重点项目的众议院共和党人。

“否决一项专项拨款并不会省下一分钱，”英霍夫在当年八月对俄克拉荷马城商会表示，“这仅仅意味着在预算流程中，这笔钱又回到了官僚机构那里。”

他是唐纳德·特朗普总统的坚定支持者，特朗普曾赞扬他“对我们的#MAGA议程给予了极大的支持”，并公开支持这位参议员竞选2020年连任。在特朗普执政期间，亚利桑那州共和党参议员约翰·麦凯恩去世后，英霍夫曾担任参议院军事委员会主席。

2009 年 3 月，英霍夫提出了一项立法，旨在阻止将关塔那摩湾美国军事监狱的囚犯转移到“美国领土上的任何地方”，此举引起了全国的关注。

在离家更近的地方，英霍夫帮助争取到数百万美元，用于清理俄克拉荷马州东北部一个曾经的采矿中心。该中心曾被列入美国环境保护署的“超级基金”名单数十年。在一项大规模的收购计划中，联邦政府购买了塔溪地区40平方英里范围内的房屋和企业。该地区的儿童血液中铅含量持续超标。

“这是一个为特定目的而设立的政府项目，项目完成后便会解散。政府就应该这样运作，”英霍夫在2010年12月项目接近尾声时说道。

2021年，英霍夫投票确认民主党候选人乔·拜登赢得总统大选，此举违背了党内部分人士的意愿。他表示，如果否决这一结果，就违反了他拥护和捍卫宪法的就职誓言。在特朗普的两次弹劾审判中，他都投票反对定罪。

詹姆斯·芒廷·英霍夫于 1934 年 11 月 17 日出生于爱荷华州得梅因，在俄克拉荷马州塔尔萨长大，并于 1959 年获得塔尔萨大学经济学学士学位。他于 1956 年至 1958 年在陆军服役，并从事商业活动三十年，曾担任贵格人寿保险公司总裁。

他的政治生涯始于1966年，当时他当选为州众议员。两年后，他赢得了俄克拉荷马州参议员席位，并在1974年竞选州长和1976年竞选美国众议员期间一直担任该职位，但均告失败。之后，他从1978年开始，连续三届当选塔尔萨市市长。

20世纪80年代，英霍夫连任两届美国众议院议员。1994年，长期担任参议员的戴维·博伦辞职，出任俄克拉荷马大学校长，英霍夫随即投身竞争激烈的美国参议院选举。同年，英霍夫在特别选举中击败当时的美国众议员戴夫·麦克柯迪，接替博伦完成剩余的两年任期，并连任五届。

在2008年与民主党候选人安德鲁·赖斯（Andrew Rice）的连任竞选中，英霍夫不负众望，展现了他强硬的竞选风格。赖斯当时35岁，是州参议员，也是一名前传教士。英霍夫声称赖斯对俄克拉荷马州来说“过于自由派”，并投放了电视广告。批评人士指出，这些广告带有反同性恋色彩，其中一则广告画面是一个婚礼蛋糕，上面摆放着两个塑料新郎，旁边还有一张赖斯年轻时身穿皮夹克的照片。

赖斯与妻子育有两个孩子，并在哈佛大学神学院获得了硕士学位。他指责英霍夫歪曲他的履历并攻击他的人格。

英霍夫的强势个性在政界之外也显而易见。他是一位持有商业飞行员执照的飞行教员，拥有超过50年的飞行经验。

1999年，他的飞机螺旋桨脱落，被迫在克莱尔莫尔紧急迫降，事后认定是安装错误造成的。2006年，他的飞机在塔尔萨降落时失控旋转；他和一名助手幸免于难，但飞机严重受损。

2010年，英霍夫驾驶小型飞机飞往他在南帕德雷岛的住所时，不慎将飞机降落在德克萨斯州南部一个乡村机场的封闭跑道上。当时他正载着其他人前往该住所。跑道工作人员紧急处理，英霍夫同意完成一项补救培训计划，以避免可能的法律诉讼。

“我75岁了，但我仍然能倒飞，”英霍夫在2010年8月说。“我不知道为什么，但我身上没有任何疼痛，感觉和五年前没有任何不同。”

英霍夫身后留下了妻子凯、三个孩子和几个孙辈。他的儿子佩里·戴森·英霍夫二世博士于2013年11月去世，享年51岁。当时他驾驶的双引擎飞机在塔尔萨国际机场以北几英里处坠毁。