Teachers Union Chief Randi Weingarten Says She Supports Full School Reopen When Pressed By Martha MacCallum: ‘Time for Our Kids to Be Back’

Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum got into a heated skirmish with Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), regarding the reopening of schools, as the two clashed on the CDC’s recently updated guidelines.

MacCallum first cited a New York Post report that accused the AFT of influencing the CDC’s timeline and working against a nationwide school reopening.

The anchor displayed the CDC’s guidance on schools, which said there may be updates on reopening if a community faces increased levels of transmission due to a variant.

The guidance was displayed alongside a similarly worded recommendation from the AFT to the CDC, which noted that “a new update of these guidelines may be necessary” due to the new variants.

Introducing Weingarten, MacCallum said, “You can see why that would lead people to think that you all have a lot of muscle over at the White House when it comes to reopening our schools.”

Weingarten said that the AFT was concerned about the coronavirus variants as they kept schools in the United Kingdom closed, adding that 97 percent of schools in the United States have reopened to some level.

“We believe that the conditions have changed now so that everybody can be back in full time, but the bottom line is this: I begged the Trump administration, I can show you — I have many, many letters right now. I went to my office to find them,” Weingarten added. “I begged the Trump administration to do exactly what the Biden administration did, which is real safety guidance that the former president didn’t mock every other day.”

Weingarten went on to praise President Joe Biden, but MacCallum cut her off, noting that “transmission among children is very low.”

Becoming increasingly frustrated, MacCallum added that schools in Europe and China have already reopened.

“If we had actually listened to Dr. [Robert] Redfield and the CDC last May and that the president — the former president — hadn’t kept on changing his mind and changing these things, we would have gotten more schools back in session,” Weingarten added, prompting a cynical “really?” from MacCallum.

MacCallum went on to say that Weingarten had previously blamed the slow return to school on a lack of funds and on other issues such as mold.

“Obviously you didn’t have the pull with the prior administration, but in this administration there’s been $20 million that has gone from — to Democrats — from teachers unions and teacher organizations,” said MacCallum. “So that money seems to be working.”

Weingarten went on to refute MacCallum’s prediction, claiming that while Covid-19 spikes in November and December hurt their reopening plan, the vaccine was “a real game changer.”

MacCallum pushed back again, claiming that transmission was low in the Fall, which sent many college students back to the classroom.

“The bottom line is it’s time for our kids to be back in school,” Weingarten said. “I am grateful that the Biden administration is listening to parents and to teachers and to administrators and to even Fox to try to figure out how we get people vaccinated, how we get our kids back to school and how we get our country back to being back.”

MacCallum questioned what is needed to send every child back to the classroom — Weingarten confirming they will not require children to get vaccinated before returning to school.

“I would hope that Fox would do what everybody else in public health is doing, which is, ‘We have to get our kids vaccinated once the vaccination is ok,” Weingarten said despite noting the lack of requirement. “I would hope Fox says to all of these people that don’t want the vaccines that think there’s a problem, ‘Why don’t you and I do things together to get our kids back to school.'”

“This is what we need to do,” she added. “We have to stop the misinformation, we have to stop the disinformation, we have to stop the chaos.”

Watch above, via Fox News.

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