Jen Psaki was granted yet another opportunity to grind a ridiculous GOP racist notion into the ground today when a reporter asked about Sen. Tom KKKotton's attacks on "liberal" colleges and universities for "indoctrinating" our youth with "un-American ideas." He, of the anti-tax GOP wants to charge a tax on these institutions who incorporate these into their curricula, in the hope of raising $2 billion a year.
The reporter asked, "Does the president believe that our largest -- our wealthiest schools are indoctrinating our youth with un-American ideas, and would he support such a tax?"
Of course, Psaki likely knew exactly what Cotton was targeting, but she played right along, smiling, "You intrigued me. What are the un-American ideas that are indoctrinating our youth?"
Hoping not to have to get specific, the reporter said, "The legislation doesn't lay out the precise..."
"Oh, he's not specific about the indoctrination by leaders from universities?," Psaki asked innocently.
Seriously, all these reporters know by now they're gonna have to come clean with specifics, I don't know why they don't just come right out with it from the beginning.
"He's been critical of, for example, the 1619 Project. He's been critical -- spoken about critical race theory. He has claimed that there is a liberal bias on campus that targets conservatives, would be a way to put it."
That would be a way to put it. Another way to put it would be that Sen. Tom Cotton is a foaming white supremacist whose thoughts on education have as much value as his ability to clap on the 2 and 4 beats. Not only does he view teaching such things as critical race theory and the 1619 Project as an opportunity to dismiss and denigrate large swaths of marginalized Americans, but he likewise views it as a chance to line his pockets with cash.
"What's he going to do with the money?" Psaki asked.
Reporter, now wondering why he came to work today, said, "He wants to use it for programs for -- I'm having a hard time coming up with the word -- when you have job training, those sort of things."
Oh, boy.
"Well, without much detail of where he thinks our youth are being indoctrinated — it sounds very mysterious and dangerous — although I don't think we would think -- we'd believe that educating the youth, the future leaders of the country on systemic racism is indoctrination. That's actually responsible," explained Psaki in language that is very difficult for racists to understand.
"But I would say, if he's trying to raise money for something, then our view is there's lots of ways to do that. We know that a number of corporations hugely benefitted financially during the pandemic. They could pay more taxes. We think the highest 1% of Americans can pay more taxes," she threw back, before issuing an invitation to sweeten the deal.
"If he wants to have a conversation about worker training we we would love to have him over and have that conversation."
It's interesting that a man who benefitted from a Harvard education wants to slap that institution and others like it with taxes for daring to include the perspectives of marginalized people in their academic curriculum, but hypocrisy is the GOP calling card.
