Image Credit: screenshot/YouTube 
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten was hauled in before Congress on Wednesday to answer for the devastating impact unnecessary school lockdowns had on children during the COVID pandemic.
The Republican-led hearing, called the “The Consequences of School Closures, Part 2,” held by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, attempted to find out exactly how much influence the AFT had in crafting disastrous school closure policies that resulted in massive learning deficits in students.
Weingarten initially insisted that she and the AFT, the second largest teacher’s union in the U.S., worked to “get schools open” during the first leg of the pandemic.
Randi Weingarten lies:
"We spent every day from February on trying to get schools open. We knew that remote education was not a substitute for opening schools." pic.twitter.com/HaBiNeidEk
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) April 26, 2023
Weingarten also dismissed the notion that she ever helped “shape” or “form” school closure policy with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Yes or no, did AFT ever provide suggested revisions to the CDC’s operational strategy regarding school closures or reopenings? Did you suggest revisions to their operational strategy?” asked Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio).
“What we suggested, sir, was ideas,” Weingarten responded. “They asked us for ideas.”
Teachers' union boss and major Democrat campaign donor Randi Weingarten admits her organization "suggested" edits to guidance from Biden's CDC on school re-openings — which were subsequently "accepted."pic.twitter.com/2ftn7zTBtY
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 26, 2023
Wenstrup then asked, “When was the first time you engaged with CDC in any way, shape or form, directly?”
Weingarten deflected, pulling the age card and claiming she didn’t “remember anything anymore” at age 65.
“The first time was when they asked us to do the Zoom – I think the first time,” Weingarten said. “Look, I’m 65 years old. I don’t remember anything anymore, I’m sorry. My recollection is that they set up this January 29, half an hour conference call. That’s my recollection.”
QUESTION: "When was the first time you engaged with CDC?"
Randi Weingarten: "Look, I'm 65 years old. I don't remember everything any more." pic.twitter.com/qsnOaFmN2z
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 26, 2023
Despite her baseless assurances that she worked to keep schools open, Weingarten was one of the strongest proponents of school lockdowns and other harsh COVID measures during the pandemic, including compulsory mask-wearing and vaccine mandates.
“There’s no way that you’re going to have full-time schools for all the kids and all the teachers the way we used to have it,” Weingarten said in July 2020.
She also denounced former President Donald Trump and Secretary Betsy DeVos’ plan to reopen schools in 2020 as “reckless” and “cruel.”
“It’s as if Trump and DeVos want to create chaos and want to jeopardize reopening,” Weingarten said in an interview. “There’s no other reason why they would be this reckless, this callous, this cruel.”
Weingarten’s stance was so hardline and unscientific that even The Wall Street Journal penned a scathing piece against her last September called “Randi Weingarten Flunks the Pandemic,” blasting her for pushing school closures “as long as she possibly could.”
America’s teachers unions demanded that schools be kept shut even as they remained open in Europe. At the same time unions used the pandemic to extort money from Congress. Schools received some $190 billion in federal Covid relief to safely reopen and address learning losses, but schools stayed closed and much of the money still hasn’t been spent.
This may explain why Weingarten enthusiastically backed an absurd proposal by The Atlantic for “pandemic amnesty,” a push to “forgive” those who imposed unconstitutional COVID measures.
"I've decided that I should be on the pardon list, if that is still in the works" pic.twitter.com/pNXoHk1d39
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) October 31, 2022
Watch the full hearing:
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