Show-Me State Times

U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) appeared on Newsmax’s National Report to discuss a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing he led, which focused on ending Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices that he describes as discriminatory.

During the interview, Schmitt criticized how civil rights laws have been applied in recent years. “For the past four years, our civil rights laws, which are meant to protect people from racial discrimination, were used to discriminate based on race. This obsession the Democrats and the Left has with DEI – which is divisive and discriminatory – found its way into every element of our society: higher education, government, and even the corporate boardrooms of America. We wanted to highlight those abuses. We had Harmeet Dhillon there, who is now the head of the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice, and we wanted to ask her what her priorities are. She’s taking this on. She’s sued over 40 universities for their admissions policies and how they use race as a reason to admit people or not admit people. I think she’s going to go after corporate America on this front, too. Also, I think it’s worth noting that in government, DEI is still very pervasive at the federal, state, and local level. We have to root this out completely. There’s no place [for DEI] in the United States of America. As Justice Roberts once said: ‘The best way to end discrimination based on race is to stop discriminating based on race.’”

Schmitt also addressed what he sees as misplaced priorities during the Biden administration: “It’s a total misalignment of priorities that we saw over four years [of the Biden administration]. We weren’t building CHIP factories because the company that was going to build the facility hadn’t hired enough ex-convicts to meet their DEI requirements. We weren’t laying broadband because they didn’t have a climate action plan. This wokeness really did affect real Americans. America is founded on the idea that everybody should be treated fairly and should be able to rise on their own merit, not because of some immutable characteristic like your skin color. But that’s exactly what the Biden administration did. It was about power. It was about control. It was about elevating certain groups and not others. The Trump administration has taken this on. This has been in front of the voters. They don’t support this. No one ever voted for DEI. But yet, a lot of people have to sit through these DEI struggle sessions at work or be denied a job or advancement because of their race. That’s wrong. We finally have a civil rights leader in the Department of Justice, along with other leaders there, that are taking this on. I think it will make a real difference.”

On Democrats’ approach toward merit-based initiatives and continued support for DEI programs, Schmitt said: “They’re in complete denial. As President Trump said in his second Inaugural Address in the [Capitol] Rotunda, this was really a revolution of common sense. That’s what the election was about. The American people rejected the excesses that they saw the last four years from the Left. The Democrats just haven’t figured it out yet. They’re still in denial. They’re still holding on to this thing. The American people don’t support them. Senator Hirono, I think, really embarrassed herself in that hearing yesterday. But she does that quite often.” He continued: “The fact of the matter is DEI is discriminatory and divisive. One of the things to be on the lookout for is just changing [DEI initiatives] to a different name. Now, they’ll call it something else instead of DEI.That was also the subject of the hearing – to make sure people are aware of this.At the fundamental level, DEI is cultural Marxism.It divides the room by oppressor and oppressed.It’s not American.It isn’t consistent with our values.School kids shouldn’t be taught to do privilege walks or what the Oppression Matrix is.DEI has permeated a lot of aspects of our society – not just higher learning but K-12.We have to be committed in the long term to defeating DEI.We have an administration that certainly supports that now.”