AFT leader tweets video montage of her "truth" on pandemic school closures
American Federation of Teachers' Randi Weingarten also told a congressional subcommittee a demonstrable lie.
Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), wants the public to believe she and her organization wanted to open schools. The evidence says otherwise.
On April 27, Weingarten issued a tweet with a video montage of her appearances on various news programs as proof of the “truth” that she and AFT were trying to reopen schools.
Twitter and Substack are fighting one another and I can’t embed the tweet, so here is the video clip:
As one might notice, the string of clips begins on May 3, 2020. Weingarten’s montage ends with a clip from well over a year later, on Sept. 24, 2021.
This extensive period of Weingarten making these claims while schools remained largely closed is a loud rebuttal to her own assertions and a prime example of what one might call an “own goal.”
Twitter users used the platform’s Community Notes to flag Weingarten’s tweet as false and missing context.
The note’s text included two July 2020 articles; one from U.S. News titled, “Teachers Union Considers Strikes Over School Reopenings,” and another from NBC News, titled “Florida's largest teachers union sues state over reopening schools.”
School choice activist Corey DeAngelis also noted that Weingarten had limited the replies to her tweet.
“She closed her replies like she closed the schools,” tweeted DeAngelis.
Another good addition to the Community Notes on Weingarten’s tweet would have been an article from the NY Post detailing collusion between the CDC, AFT, and the White House when it came to school reopening guidance.
Excerpt from the NY Post’s May 1, 2021, article, “Powerful teachers union influenced CDC on school reopenings, emails show.”
The American Federation of Teachers lobbied the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on, and even suggested language for, the federal agency’s school-reopening guidance released in February.
The powerful teachers union’s full-court press preceded the federal agency putting the brakes on a full re-opening of in-person classrooms, emails between top CDC, AFT and White House officials show.
The emails were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the conservative watchdog group Americans for Public Trust and provided to The Post.
The AFT emails to the CDC, including Director Rochelle Walensky, contained suggested revisions and policy language, much of which was incorporated nearly verbatim into the CDC’s school reopening guidance.
More To The Story
The same day Weingarten posted her “truth” montage to Twitter, she was called out on her school reopening remarks while appearing on CNN by one of the network’s own commentators, Scott Jennings.
The panel was discussing “what we’ve learned from school closures.”
Jennings addressed Weingarten, telling her he had four kids at home their family had to help instruct during the pandemic.
"I am stunned at what you have said this week about your claiming to have wanting to reopen schools,” Jennings told Weingarten. “I think you'll find that most parents believe you are the tip of the sphere of school closures.”
Jennings went on to mention statements Weingarten made over the summer of 2020 that were “scaring people to death about the possibility of reopening schools.”
“I hear no remorse whatsoever about the generational damage that's been done to these kids,” Jennings said to Weingarten.
Jennings may have been referring to Weingarten’s tweet but also may have been referring to her testimony in front of Congress the day before, on April 26.
Weingarten appeared before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. The topic was “ The Consequences of School Closures, Part 2.”
The main topic was really AFT’s collusion with the CDC and White House related to guidance that kept schools closed.
The subcommittee meeting was led by Chair Brad Wenstrup (OH-02) and Ranking Member Raul Ruiz (CA-25). There are eight Republicans and six Democrats on the subcommittee, including Deborah Ross (D-NC-02).
In Weingarten’s prepared remarks, the AFT leader began by telling the subcommittee a demonstrable lie.
“On behalf of the 1.7 million members of the American Federation of Teachers, I am glad to appear before you today to set the record straight on the faulty premise of this hearing,” Weingarten said in her opening statement. “That premise—that the AFT sought to keep schools closed longer than necessary and that we had inappropriate influence over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance for reopening schools—is patently false.”
Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (AZ-08) asked Weingarten a number of questions, which received vague answers, but Lesko didn’t relent on the topic of the relationship between the CDC and AFT and finally got some results.
"Do you have a direct number to [CDC] Director Walensky?” Lesko pressed Weingarten.
"Yes. I have Director Walensky's direct number,” Weingarten admitted.
Wenstrup also pressed Weingarten on school closures and if her organization suggested revisions.
“What we suggested sir, was ideas,” responded Weingarten.
Wenstrup pressed her on the “edits” her organization suggested, with the AFT leader responding there was “one particular edit that they [CDC] accepted.”
Wenstrup also managed to get Weingarten to admit it was the Biden Transition Team who solicited the “edits” in the first place.
"Did the AFT first engage the CDC or did the CDC reach out to you?" Wenstrup asked the union leader.
"So what essentially happened, sir, was that we were talking to the Biden transition team before he was sworn into office," Weingarten responded.
"Did they reach out to you or the CDC?" Wenstrup asked.
"The Biden transition team reached out to us," said Weingarten.
During the hearing, Ross gave Weingarten a break from being grilled by other lawmakers by asking questions about early childhood education like the Headstart program instead of AFT’s involvement in keeping schools closed.
The full hearing can be watched below:
Related Reading:
Randi Weingarten is an evil liar - Hot Air
Randi Weingarten ruined kids lives and she refuses to apologize - NY Post
Jim Jordan Asks Teachers Union President Point-Blank Who ‘Started The Culture Wars’ In Public Schools - Daily Caller
How teacher unions sold out our kids during the pandemic - NY Post
Government’s National Security Arm Took Charge During the Covid Response - Brownstone Institute