Omarosa: DeVos Said Black Students Lack ‘Capacity To Understand’ Her Agenda

on March 5, 2018 in Sunrise, Florida.
CORAL SPRINGS, FL - MARCH 07: U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks to the news during a press conference held at the Heron Bay Marriott about her visit to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on M... CORAL SPRINGS, FL - MARCH 07: U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks to the news during a press conference held at the Heron Bay Marriott about her visit to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on March 7, 2018 in Coral Springs, Florida. DeVos was visiting the high school following the February 14 shooting that killed 17 people. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

According to former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos chalked up her panned commencement speech at the historically black Bethune-Cookman University to the students’ lack of “capacity to understand” her goals.

According to a Tuesday Politico report, when DeVos gave the speech in May 2017, many students booed her or turned their backs. Per Manigault Newman via her new memoir UNHINGED, DeVos pushed on with her speech, raising her voice to be heard over the booing.

After the painful speech, DeVos reportedly told Manigault Newman that she thought she did “great,” adding that: “They don’t get it. They don’t have the capacity to understand what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Manigault Newman says she told DeVos that the students did understand her agenda, and that they weren’t pleased with it. In retribution, DeVos reportedly ditched Manigault Newman at the hotel, telling her to get an Uber.

A spokesperson for DeVos denied the claims, telling Politico: “This disgraced former White House employee is peddling lies for profit. The book is a joke as are the false claims she’s making about Secretary DeVos.”

When Manigault Newman completed her journey back to D.C., she says that she complained to President Donald Trump about DeVos’ behavior. He allegedly said: “She is Ditzy DeVos, what do you expect? In a very short period of time, I will get rid of her. Believe me, believe me.”

Manigault Newman also accuses DeVos of cancelling the annual HBCU conference in a huff, to the tune of $75,000 taxpayer-funded cancellation fees.

Latest News
76
Show Comments

Notable Replies

  1. This God-drunk Dominionist asshole is the logical end-game of oligarchic narcissism and she has GOT TO GO.

  2. OK, Devos is a racist pig – tell us something we didn’t already know. It is good to see it getting into the news.

  3. Just think, despite being a manifestly repugnant human being the electorate will flock to the polls in 2020 and re-elect Trump to the Presidency. After all, the same electorate knew all his negative qualities in 2016, yet still put him in the Oval Office. $50 says they do it again.

    In the final analysis we’re all just cutters.

  4. I didn’t realize I was black.

  5. The DeVos’s were team Rubio in the primary, IIRC, but they flipped strongly. It is hard not to wonder whether the family business interests in Russia played a role in that, in her getting a cabinet job, and in her mercenary brother’s semi-clandistine back-channeling. Also, Spectrum-Alfa (even though that may be a sideshow…)

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

70 more replies

Participants

Avatar for fgs Avatar for mondfledermaus Avatar for old_curmudgeon Avatar for bluestatedon Avatar for boscobrown Avatar for psyclone Avatar for baffie2 Avatar for lastroth Avatar for stradivarius50t3 Avatar for left_in_washington_state Avatar for martinstett Avatar for airportman Avatar for dickweed Avatar for benthere Avatar for tena Avatar for pmaroneyb Avatar for birdford Avatar for canyoncountry Avatar for drtv Avatar for frantastic Avatar for evave2 Avatar for rascal_crone Avatar for leeblzm Avatar for captain_america

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: