At a congressional budget hearing last week, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) gave Interior Secretary David Bernhardt an opportunity to walk back a statement he’d made 30 minutes earlier about how rapidly rising atmospheric carbon dioxide hadn’t cost him any sleep.

“A lot of people are watching and I think it is one of those clips of testimony that will reverberate,” Huffman said. “People will look back on what you said. I want to just give you this chance to assure people that you actually get it on climate change.”

Bernhardt responded that the U.S. has led developed nations in reducing CO2 emissions. (Two separate analyses in January documented a sharp rise in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions last year.)

A week later, two things have become clear. Bernhardt still has no plans of backpedaling on his climate shrug. And the remark is going to follow the former oil and gas lobbyist ― and the Trump administration.

The interior secretary’s comment took center stage at a congressional budget hearing on Wednesday. And Democratic presidential contenders have started citing Bernhardt’s apathy about the climate crisis as they vie for a chance to take down President Donald Trump in 2020.

“Trump’s Interior Secretary said he’s not losing sleep over climate change,” 2020 hopeful Steve Bullock, the two-term Democratic governor of deep-red Montana, told HuffPost via email this week. “Well, as the Governor of a state dealing with record wildfires and as the father of three kids, I am. Climate change is a direct threat to our way of life, which means our response must be both immediate and durable. We need to get this right.”

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who has released the most detailed climate policy vision of any 2020 Democratic contender, addressed Bernhardt’s comment when he joined New York City school striker and 14-year-old climate activist Alexandria Villaseñor at a protest outside the United Nations in Manhattan last week.

“Look, this is the kind of baloney you get when you put an arsonist in charge of your fire department,” Inslee told a HuffPost reporter covering the protest. “They stand in front of the burning house and say, ‘What fire?’ That’s the situation here.”