In a video posted on what’s labeled as his personal account on social media platform X, state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters is trying to connect teachers’ unions – groups he long has railed against – to the recent terror attack in New Orleans.
At least one lawmaker, and one of Oklahoma’s teachers’ unions, have responded, saying Walters’ rhetoric is “shameful.”
The FBI said that early on New Year’s Day on Wednesday, 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen and a U.S. Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, rammed his truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in the famed French Quarter of New Orleans and killed 15 people.
Wearing an “America First” hat while sitting inside his vehicle and filming his video, Walters said, “We also have to take a look at how are these terrorists coming from people that live in America?”
He then attempts to answer that question: “You have schools that are teaching kids to hate their country, that this country is evil. You have the teachers’ unions pushing this on our kid (sic). The radical left wants people to hate this country. They’ve completely destroyed the integrity of the FBI by making them more concerned about DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion) than about protecting Americans.”