Leaked video shows Smithsonian director admitting she uses history as a tool for social justice

Following a series of hearings on Capitol Hill aimed at investigating alleged ideological bias within the Smithsonian Institution, a video recently released by Fox News Digital reveals a stark contradiction between the organization's public rhetoric and its internal operations.

In the recording, which captures a lecture delivered in February 2025 to students at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the director of the National Museum of American History, Anthea Hartig, stated verbatim that "history as a practice" is, for her, a "primary tool for social justice."

The contradiction with her sworn testimony on Capitol Hill

The stance displayed in the video contrasts with the statements Hartig herself made last month before members of Congress, where she defended the political neutrality of the publicly funded institution.

"Our work is guided by the Smithsonian's standards of scholarship, accuracy, independence, and non-neutrality," the official asserted during her hearing on Capitol Hill, adding that "the museum does not take sides in America's political debates," but rather allows the public to draw their own conclusions.

However, during her presentation at UCLA, Hartig outlined an institutional approach centered on equity and restorative justice.

In her remarks, she argued that "the long and violent racial history of the United States continues to be present in our reckoning," and added that "reparation in the form of restitution, of course, goes beyond acknowledging the wrong; it should leverage accountability, it should consider the act of correction, as we pursue restorative justice—and, for us, restorative justice throughout history."

Flags of protest, activism, and progressive iconography

During the university session, the director began her presentation with an acknowledgment of ancestral lands and projected a slide of the American flag featuring the phrase "Defund the Police" (Defund the Police), taken during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Washington, D.C. in 2020.

Throughout the conference, Hartig praised the collection of material related to left-wing protests and highlighted the institution's collaboration with groups critical of immigration policies, such as Tsuru for Solidarity, an organization opposed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers.

The senior official also acknowledged that the institution had distanced itself from its founding concept from the 1960s, which sought to highlight the country's technological advancements and progress. "We have clearly moved away from that," she said, noting that the new vision seeks to engage an audience that reflects the full demographic diversity of gender, class, and race.

A global push for linguistic justice

Among the policies implemented under her administration, Hartig highlighted the adoption of a "proactive multilingual strategy to support linguistic justice." The measure stipulates that all exhibitions and digital projects must be presented in a bilingual or multilingual format to guarantee the right to communicate in the language of one's choice.

In response to criticism of the approach taken in the exhibitions, Hartig concluded her talk by urging students to defend this line of work: "We are under attack for telling complicated truths." The National Museum of American History and the Smithsonian network have not commented on the matter.