Left-wing sources are conveniently ignoring the hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations that teacher unions have contributed to Democratic members on the HELP committee while they criticize DeVos
December 20, 2016
Hypocrisy Alert: Liberals Attack DeVos For Political Donations, Ignore Dems’ $600K+ From Teachers Unions
Since President-elect Trump announced that he would nominate Michigan education reform leader Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary, liberals have engaged in an all-out effort to smear and distort DeVos’ record.
Politico this morning claims that DeVos has a “clear advantage” heading into her confirmation hearing due to her and her husband’s campaign contributions over the years. Liberal activists condemned the DeVos family’s political activism “troubling,” claiming those receiving contributions from DeVos can’t judge her fairly:
“‘It’s just another reflection of the distortion of our politics due to massive campaign contributions,’ said Robert Weissman, president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, who said he finds DeVos’ political contributions troubling. ‘People who receive campaign contributions from her are far less likely to scrutinize her than people who have not.’”
But Politico and its left-wing sources conveniently ignore the hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations that teacher unions – who oppose education reform – have contributed to Democratic members on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee – the committee that will be confirming DeVos next year.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, current and soon-to-be Democratic members of the Senate HELP committee have collectively received $637,826 from the two major teacher unions: the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association:
Meanwhile, at least one HELP Committee Democrat is distancing himself from the liberal criticism of DeVos: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), pointing out the hypocrisy of this attack:
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate education committee, has been critical of DeVos but said he doesn’t worry about her political donations.
“It wouldn’t be the first time that a nominee has made political donations,” he said. “Penny Pritzker was a fantastic secretary of Commerce and she probably made a few donations to Democrats over the years. I don’t worry about those donations.”