Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has thrown down the gauntlet to American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten — whom he has described as “the most dangerous person in the world” — challenging her to a debate.
Last week, Pompeo told Semafor that when he was asked who the most dangerous person in the world was, he named Weingarten, adding, “It’s not a close call.”
“I fear America is on a path to disintegration due to persistent failures in our education system. American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten and her fellow travelers have crippled our nation’s schools,” Pompeo wrote in an opinion piece in the New York Post on Tuesday.
In February 2021, in an interview with Axios, Weingarten said in reference to children who had been out of school for months, “kids are resilient and kids will recover.”
Axios’ Dan Primack asked, “Is there a point — and maybe you think we’re already past it — is there a point in which kids have been out of in-person school for so long that the education that they’ve lost isn’t really recoverable, that the third grade, the fourth grade, the kindergarten they lost, they can take extra semesters in the summer; they can do [that], but it can’t really be fixed?”
“No,” said Weingarten, whose union is the second largest teachers union in America, representing 1.7 million teachers. “I don’t believe that. I believe that kids are resilient and kids will recover. But we as adults have to meet their needs. Their emotional needs, their social needs, their learning needs.”
“The danger she presents to our nation is clear and real and exceeds that of all the bad guys I battled abroad for four years as secretary of state and CIA director,” Pompeo declared.
Noting that Weingarten responded to his Semafor remarks by ranting that Pompeo was “extreme,” “anti-LGBTQ,” and “anti-Semitic,” Pompeo charged, “Her personal venom evidences an unwillingness to defend what she has wrought on our children and our nation. I am prepared to debate her and to present to the American people my case for the risks she presents to our republic and our nation’s future.”
Pompeo quoted the Father of the Constitution and America’s fourth president, James Madison: “The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.”
He quoted iconic historian Will Durant: “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”
“I believe the future of our republic will not be written by our enemies,” Pompeo opined. “Indeed, America is more likely to be lost if we do not retake our schools from radical and progressive forces. … Failing to teach math, science, real history and civics and, importantly, to imprint America as the most exceptional nation in civilizational history on the hearts and minds of the next generation dooms America and the world that counts on us.”
“Students in China now outscore our children across the board,” Pompeo noted. “America’s students are severely deficient in mathematics and science, vital in our technological age.”
He pointed out that according to the Program for International Student Assessment, among 70 countries “American students ranked 35th in mathematics, 16th in science and 11th in reading.”
“All of this on Weingarten’s watch,” Pompeo asserted. “And it’s now worse. That assessment was conducted before the school lockdowns Weingarten helped engineer.”
“This focus on indoctrination over education is why Weingarten and the leftist establishment she represents are so dangerous; their malfeasance directly empowers Xi, Putin, and Ali Khamenei, who look to our schools to accelerate the decline upon which they build their global narrative,” Pompeo theorized. “Critical race theory and the 1619 Project derive from Marxist precepts; they do not reflect the greatness and the power of the American experiment. Today, only 1 in 3 Americans could pass the citizenship test.”
“America’s founding was a watershed in world history. Our nation is exceptional,” Pompeo stated. “President Biden should demand a renaissance in America’s schools, but he is too indebted to Weingarten, her union and other special interests to do his job.”
“Who are the beneficiaries of Weingarten’s vision of education?” Pompeo asked rhetorically. “Union bosses. Bureaucrats who multiply beyond function — and our adversaries. What Xi, Putin and Khamenei could never accomplish on the battlefield they are reaping in our classrooms.”
“If Weingarten and her ilk continue to control our schools and universities, we will lose our country, for it will become indefensible. She dissembles, knowing that an echoic media will front for her,” Pompeo blasted.
He concluded, “I look forward to the opportunity to defend our republic against the America-hating left that has occupied the commanding heights of our schools as opposed to the parents who so desperately need teachers to stay on mission.”
“Therefore, will you, Randi Weingarten, accept my challenge to debate?”