Ayanna Pressley Obliterates Betsy DeVos For Comparing Being Pro-Choice To Being Pro-Slavery
The U.S. Secretary of Education compared being pro-choice to pro-slavery in a recent speech.
“[Lincoln] too contended with the pro-choice arguments of his day. They suggested that a state’s choice to be slave or to be free had no moral question in it,” Besty DeVos said while speaking at an event for Colorado Christian University in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday (Jan. 22), according to the Colorado Times Recorder, The Hill reports.
“Well, President Lincoln reminded those pro-choicers that is a vast portion of the American people that do not look upon that matter as being this very little thing. They look upon it as a vast moral evil,” DeVos continued.
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, the Chair of the abortion access task force, reacted to DeVos’s speech on Twitter, writing, “I invite you to come by the Hill and say this to my face,” adding that she “would welcome the opportunity to educate” the Secretary of Education.
The following day, on Thursday (Jan. 23), DeVos spoke about the Trump administration’s “valued partnership” with HBCUs during a speech at the Heritage Foundation, The Daily Signal reports.
The event called the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Forum was a gathering of representatives and supporters discussing how to ensure they remain competitive in preparing students for a quickly changing job market, The Daily Signal reports.
According to the outlet, DeVos told attendees, “Today, I encourage you to think about how your institutions will be known decades from now, in addition to being an HBCU.”
She added, “Your competitiveness ultimately depends on your most valuable assets, your students. Helping them be better prepared before they walk your halls serves to strengthen their futures and your institutions.”
DeVos commended the HBCUs that have opened public charter schools on their campuses and those that have forged partnerships to improve the K-12 pipeline, The Daily Signal reports.
She also blasted the Obama administration’s “gainful employment” rule, which was scrapped from the current administration’s work with HBCUs, the outlet reports, saying it had given bureaucrats the “power to punish or even close colleges and programs that didn’t match the prior administration’s policies and preferences.”
The Daily Signal also reports that DeVos described the Trump administration’s work as “a strong record of action for HBCUs and their students.”
DeVos boasted about things like the Future Act, designed to ensure consistent funding for HBCUs, and the resurrection of the HBCU Capital Financing Advisory Board, which increases spending for programs at Black colleges, including those at faith-based schools that she said had been “unconstitutionally excluded,” The Daily Signal reports.
“While others tried half measures or short-term fixes,” DeVos said, The Daily Signal reports, “we took the bold steps necessary to help students succeed in the long term,” adding, “President Trump and I value our continued collaboration.”
