At a boisterous and jam-packed town hall event on Wednesday, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana faced a fuming crowd of constituents expressing outrage over the senator’s decision to support Betsy DeVos’ confirmation as education secretary.
It was clear that Cassidy wasn’t prepared to field questions on this topic because his reason for supporting the unqualified DeVos was stunningly bad.
The Louisiana senator said, “I asked Mrs. DeVos, ‘Will you enforce the law?’ ‘Absolutely’ … ‘Do you support public education?’ She goes ‘Absolutely.'”
The crowd’s response to Cassidy’s non-answer was simple: DeVos lied.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Cassidy: I asked DeVos do you support public education, she said absolutely
Audience: She Lied
— Jeff Adelson (@jadelson) February 22, 2017
During one moment of the proceedings, Cassidy made a shocking – though unsurprising – admission to the crowd that he wasn’t even present for the entirety of DeVos’ confirmation hearing.
Crowd at Sen. Bill Cassidy R-La. town hall not happy he admitted didn’t stay for 2-hour Q&A of Betsy DeVos.
— Claire Taylor (@ClaireTaylorTDA) February 22, 2017
The GOP senator also came under fire for tens of thousands in donations that his campaign received from DeVos and her family during the 2014 campaign, with many people holding up signs reading “bought and paid for” and “senator for sale 70k.”
Crowd Chants “$70k”, the amount new Sec of Ed Devos contributed to Cassidy’s campaigns
Cassidy starts to say “The Devos family supported me”— Jeff Adelson (@jadelson) February 22, 2017
If Sen. Cassidy expected his constituents to forget about his support of Betsy DeVos, he was sorely mistaken. They came armed with tough questions, ready to hold his feet to the fire.
In Arkansas on Wednesday, Sen. Tom Cotton received a similar reaction from his town hall crowd when he tried to justify his support for DeVos.
Voters across the country are visibly angry and aren’t letting up, and Republicans are learning that they can’t defend the indefensible.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
