Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was interviewed by Lisa Stahl for 60 Minutes on Sunday night, and despite her best attempts to smile and word-salad her way through the line of questioning, it did not go great — putting it lightly. In the above clip, DeVos was asked to explain why it makes sense to take money away from a school that’s already not working and expect it to improve. It was a fairly straightforward question, but DeVos’ answer was mind-boggling.
“Well, we should be funding, and investing, in students,” she replied. “Not in school– school buildings, not in institutions, not in systems…”
Stahl then interrupted to call DeVos on her B.S., who then went on to point to Florida, making the claim that students who are given alternate education options other somehow improve public schools.
“Has that happened in Michigan?” Stahl continued. “We’re in Michigan, this is your home state.” DeVos enthusiastically replied that there were plenty of great options and choices for students in her state, but Stahl pressed further.
“Have the public schools in Michigan gotten better?” she asked, point blank. “Uh, I don’t know. Overall, I can’t say overall that they have all gotten better,” DeVos replied.
“The whole state is not doing well,” Stahl pointed out. “Your argument that if you take funds away that the schools will get better is not working in Michigan, where you had a huge impact and influence over the direction of the school system here.”
“I hesitate to talk about all schools in general, because schools are made up of individual students attending them,” DeVos offered.
After some more back and forth, Stahl asked if DeVos has even seen the “really bad schools” in Michigan. “Maybe try to figure out what they’re doing?”
“I have not — I have not — I have not intentionally visited schools that are underperforming,” DeVos replied. “Maybe you should,” Stahl shot back, to which DeVos smiled vacantly and agreed. “Maybe I should. Yes.”
Suffice to say, the whole thing was pretty brutal, and shortly after the interview aired, Twitter lit up to drag the woman in charge of education for literally the entire country.
https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/973042609483583488
Betsy DeVos can't answer questions about improving the educational system because her goal is to raze it to the ground. She's a saboteur. https://t.co/V9Ebu3xe4M
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) March 12, 2018
I can’t believe CBS was so rude to that heiress who uses her inheritance to lobby the government to take poor kids’ lunches away and give the money to rich kids.
— Vince Mancini (@VinceMancini) March 12, 2018
betsy devos’s phone before that 60 minutes interview pic.twitter.com/qPSuYfjjEV
— Bob Vulfov (@bobvulfov) March 12, 2018
Watch how IMMEDIATELY disgusted Leslie Stahl is with this blissful moron. And watch how aggressively ignorant Betsey DeVos is. How the FUCK is she Sec. of Education? https://t.co/Q9p9bH646R
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) March 12, 2018
This Betsy Devos 60 Mins clip is a total train wreck putting aside even the merits of her argument https://t.co/8DNkSIYkB7
— Sam Stein (@samstein) March 12, 2018
https://twitter.com/michaelianblack/status/972982102793875457
We all expected a controversial blonde woman to embarrass the Trump administration on 60 minutes, we just thought it would be Stormy Daniels not Betsy DeVos.
— Adam Best (@adamcbest) March 12, 2018
I thought that Betsy DeVos interview was an episode of Drunk History but turns out she’s the Secretary of Education
— Clint Smith (@ClintSmithIII) March 12, 2018
Personally I think Betsy DeVos' appearance on 60 Minutes tonight did more damage to Trump than a Stormy Daniels interview could ever do. He put an actual imbecile in the most important job in his cabinet. That's not just screwing a porn star, thats screwing all of our children.
— Mr. Newberger (@jeremynewberger) March 12, 2018