Pelosi Slams DeVos’ Push To Reopen Schools: ‘This Is Appalling’

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 28: U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks during a weekly news conference May 28, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Speaker Pelosi discussed various topics including th... WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 28: U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks during a weekly news conference May 28, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Speaker Pelosi discussed various topics including the death of George Floyd after being detained by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the imposing of national security law to override Hong Kong’s autonomy by the Chinese government. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Sunday wasted no time in criticizing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ push to reopen schools amid surging cases of the coronavirus nationwide.

Earlier Sunday, DeVos repeatedly dodged questions on whether schools should follow CDC guidance as they reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, President Trump said that the White House is “very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools, to get them open, and it’s very important.”

When asked to respond to DeVos’ remarks on CNN that bolstered Trump’s demand for schools to reopen, Pelosi responded that the education secretary’s interview was a “malfeasance dereliction of duty.”

“This is appalling,” Pelosi said. “The President and his administration are messing with the health of our children. We all want our children to go back to school. Teachers do. Parents do. And children do. But they must go back safely.”

Pelosi then took aim at the Trump administration for having “no appreciation for the failure” of their response to the coronavirus crisis.

“Going back to school presents the biggest risk for the spread of the coronavirus,” Pelosi said. “They ignore science and they ignore governance to make this happen.”

Pelosi added that she thinks that CDC guidelines “should be requirements.” On Thursday, CDC Director Robert Redfield denied that the agency’s guidelines regarding schools reopening in the fall would not change despite the President saying that they are “very tough, expensive and impractical.”

Watch Pelosi’s remarks below:

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