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OMG! Jean Pierre blames TRUMP for schools not opening, drop in scores, with a scary straight face

September 2, 2022 | | Print Article

Though she’s yet to be fact-checked by a single establishment media outlet, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lied through her teeth Thursday by claiming that Democrats, not Republicans, were responsible for schools reopening.

The stunning lie was spouted during a briefing after Jean-Pierre was asked point-blank whether the Biden administration deserves “any blame for not pushing schools to reopen sooner.”

The question was motivated by a new report from the National Center for Education Statistics showing that math and reading scores among third graders have dropped precipitously.

The press secretary responded to the line of questioning by outright lying again.

Listen:

“So, let’s step back to where we were not too long ago when this president walked into this administration: how mismanaged the response to the pandemic was; how in less than six months, our schools went from 46 percent open to nearly all of them being open to full time,” she said.

“That was the work of this president. And that was the work of Democrats, in spite of Republicans not voting for the American Rescue Plan, which $130 billion went to schools to have the ventilation, to be able to have the tutoring, and being able to hire more teachers. And that was because of the work that this administration did.”

The American Rescue Plan had nothing to do with schools reopening. In fact, schools began reopening in red states long before President Joe Biden took office. And they did so in spite of Democrats’ fear-mongering over COVID:

Moreover, former President Donald Trump had desperately tried to push for the reopening of schools, again in spite of Democrats.

“President Donald Trump on Tuesday launched an all-out effort pressing state and local officials to reopen schools this fall, arguing that some are keeping schools closed not because of the risks from the coronavirus pandemic but for political reasons,” the Associated Press reported on July 7th, 2020.

“They think it’s going to be good for them politically, so they keep the schools closed. No way. We’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools,” the then-president said at the time.

Even by the time Biden took office, at which point the vaccine had already been released, many Democrat states and cities continued to keep their schools closed.

This prompted Republicans to try to push for school reopenings in February of 2021, only to be blocked by, you guessed it, Democrats.

“House Republicans fell short in their effort Tuesday to force immediate consideration of a school reopening bill that would have given full federal funding to schools that physically reopen during the coronavirus pandemic and penalized districts that remain closed,” Fox News reported at the time.

Jean-Pierre continued her deceptive remarks Thursday by again touting the American Rescue Plan.

“Our priority remains to make sure states and schools and districts are using these funds. This is going to go, again, to tutoring, to more teachers. Real solutions to make sure that our kids are getting what they need. And, you know, every Republican in Congress voted against that money. That is the reality. We had to do this on our own,” she said.

“And so, you know, we’re going to make sure that those funds are directed to the most resources towards students who are who fell the furthest behind, which is important. And we must repair the damage that was done by the last administration, the mismanagement that was done by the last administration.”

Again, the American Rescue Plan had nothing to do with reopening schools, which is why Republicans voted against it. And indeed, previous reporting from BizPac Review has shown how billions in school funding from the bill wound up being diverted to fund entirely unrelated causes like critical race theory training:

The fact is that from the beginning until now, Democrats, not Republicans, have stood in the way of schools reopening.

If you need further proof, view the thread below. It contains numerous additional examples of Democrats and their allies — particularly their union allies — refusing to call for the immediate reopening of schools:

While Jean-Pierre is certainly a master at gaslighting, there’s a limit to everything. And her latest ginormous lie suggests she’s reached that limit …

Vivek Saxena
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