Republican candidate for president, Sen. Tim Scott, criticized American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten for the comparison he made between defenders of parental rights and segregationists who opposed the integration of schools in the 1950s.
Scott on Wednesday expressed outrage at recent comments by Weingarten, the president of the nation's second-largest teachers' union, and noted how tired he is of liberals using the pretext of race every time they are losing in an argument.
"There might not be anyone that's done more damage recently than Randi Weingarten to the kids living in distressed communities," the Republican nominee said during an interview with Fox News, adding that it is very "frustrating to hear these liberal lies, hearkening back to a day that no longer exists."
"I can't think of anything more actually racist than trapping poor Black kids in the failing schools in these big blue cities dominated by a super-majority of radical progressives who are running the cities and destroying the schools," he said, noting that it is precisely because of these teachers' unions that they fight. "They're the problem. They're literally destroying the future of millions of kids," he added.
Scott took the opportunity to promise that, if elected president, he will work hard to end the influence teachers' unions have in schools.
I’m sick of liberals crying racism every time they’re losing an argument.
I can't think of anything more racist than teachers’ unions trapping poor Black kids in failing schools in big blue cities.
Randi Weingarten, you’ve done enough damage.https://t.co/1Y9Q6ZWIqW
— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) September 14, 2023
Remarks by the president of AFT
During the interview with Weingarten, the AFT president said that advocates of fathers' rights use very similar rhetoric to that of Jim Crow-era segregationists who opposed the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.
"Those same words that you heard in terms of wanting segregation post-Brown v. Board of Education, those same words you hear today ... choice, parental rights," she said.
