Mass. Sen. Warren has a few questions — OK, 66 of them — for Trump's Ed. Department boss
You could forgive U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren for flashing back to her Harvard Law School days proctoring exams for her students next week as she sits down for a meeting with U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
That's because, ahead of that June 10 session, the Cambridge Democrat sent the senior Trump administration official a sprawling list of 66 questions about the Republican White House's efforts to dismantle the Carter-era agency that McMahon was tapped to run.
And no, they're not multiple choice. But some do have multiple sections, requiring those essay-style answers that you dreaded when you were taking the SATs.
So how'd all this happen?
Last month, Warren invited McMahon to a public forum on higher education affordability — she took a pass, instead asking Warren for a one-on-one meeting.
In a statement, Warren said she 'rebutted' eight false and misleading statements that McMahon included in that May 12 letter asking for a sitdown.
Those rebuttals were included in the Wednesday letter Warren sent to McMahon.
Upping the ante, in the same letter, the Democratic lawmaker also hit McMahon with her list of 66 questions — roughly eight times the number of statements that Warren said she had to rebut.
Those questions range from queries about access to debt relief and student aid to the impact of mass layoffs at the Education Department.
'Instead of continuing to avoid accountability for your policies, I urge you to listen to the voices of students, borrowers, and families around the country and stop giving DOGE and Donald Trump a blank check to destroy American public education,' Warren wrote.
If nothing else, McMahon will come in prepared.
On Tuesday, she played defense as Democrats and Republicans on a U.S. Senate panel peppered her with questions about her tenure and her role in the administration's crackdown on Harvard University, ostensibly in the name of combating antisemitism.
"These were civil rights violations. That is why we filed a case and stopped the funding for Harvard as well as Columbia,' McMahon told U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., at one point, according to Inside Higher Ed. 'And in conversations with [the universities], we talked about different things that they should do coming back to the table.'
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