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Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma sparked a round of laughter in the a Senate hearing room after misspeaking and snapping \u201cI don\u2019t want reality!\u201d at a witness.<\/p>\n
Mr Mullin\u2019s comment came during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) hearing on race and education where he was aggressively questioning a panel of witnesses about whether it\u2019s better to teach the book Our Skin: A First Conversation About Race or the lyrics of the song \u201cJesus Loves Me.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Mr Mullin became irritated with a response given by Cheryl Morman, president of the Virginia Alliance for Family Child Care Associations, and cut her off, Sen Bernie Sanders, the committee chair, asked Mr Mullin to allow her to answer the question he had posed. <\/p>\n
One of the witnesses started saying: \u201cThe reality is …\u201d at which point Mr Mullin cut her off.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I don\u2019t want reality, I\u2019m asking the question, which one is better?\u201d Mr Mullin said. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what it is.\u201d <\/p>\n
Spectators in the hearing room errupted with laughter as Mr Mullin acknowledged that he \u201cmisspoke\u201d and then continued with his questioning. <\/p>\n
The HELP committee was convened for a hearing called \u201cSolving the Child Care Crisis: Meeting the Needs of Working Families and Child Care Workers.\u201d When it was Mr Mullin\u2019s turn to question the panel of witnesses, he pulled out a copy Our Skin \u2014 a book meant to teach young children about the history and function of race \u2014 and announced that he would read a passage from it. <\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018A long time ago, way before you were born, a group of white people made up an idea called race,\u201d Mr Mullin said. \u201cThey sorted people by skin colour and said that white people were better, smarter, prettier, and they deserved more than everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Mullin later said he disagreed with the book \u201cone thousand percent\u201d and suggested it would prejudice children against white people. Mr Mullin, who is a member of the Cherokee Nation, said schools should instead teach the song \u201cJesus Loves Me,\u201d a Christian hymn written before the onset of the Civil War that would likely violate the prohibition against religious activity in many public school districts. <\/p>\n
Mr Mullin has frequently made headlines in the last several months for his conduct on the HELP committee, where he\u2019s clashed with figures ranging from Mr Sanders to Teamsters president Sean O\u2019Brien. <\/p>\n
Mr Sanders has significantly raised the profile of the committee since he took over as chair at the beginning of the current Congress, bringing a range of activists, labour leaders, and major CEOs like Starbucks\u2019 Howard Schultz to Washington to testify in high-profile hearings. <\/p>\n
Mr Mullin, a multimillionaire business owner who was elevated to the Seante in a special election last year, has chafed in past hearings at Mr Sanders\u2019 treatment of major corporate executives like Mr Schutlz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington email Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma sparked a round of laughter in the a Senate hearing room after misspeaking and snapping \u201cI don\u2019t want reality!\u201d at a witness. Mr Mullin\u2019s comment came during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n