At Thursday’s White House press briefing, press secretary Jen Psaki fielded questions about Israel and Palestine, the CDC’s evolving public health recommendations, and what was happening with the Grand Old Party of do-nothings in regards to Biden’s proposed infrastructure plan. At one point a reporter asked Psaki to weigh in on the Republican Party’s new boogeyman: critical race theory (CRT) being taught in schools. There has been a spate of GOP-controlled states across the country trying to legislate important American history out of existence.

The specific question that Psaki was answering had to do with Republican Sen. Tom Cotton’s Ivory Tower Tax Act, which would tax higher education institutions that taught “un-American ideas.” Unfortunately, the Arkansas politician, a man who believes that the entire world should be bombed out of existence to end the nightmare that is his own existence, doesn’t mean higher education institutions teaching that the Big Lie is a real thing. No, Cotton means schools educating students on the systemic racist history of the United States, from its founding to Tom Cotton. According to Cotton, schools like Harvard and Stanford teach their students to “hate America,” explaining that, “Our wealthiest colleges and universities have amassed billions of dollars, virtually tax-free, all while indoctrinating our youth with un-American ideas.”

So Psaki gave a three-minute lesson on how full of sh!@# Sen. Tom Cotton is.

After passing on the Tom Cotton quote about indoctrination into “un-American ideas,” Psaki smiled and poked back. “Now you’ve intrigued me. What are the un-American ideas that are indoctrinating our youth?” The reporter responded, “The legislation doesn’t lay out the precise—,“ at which point, Psaki made sure this important detail wasn’t left off mic, asking “Oh, he’s not specific about the indoctrination by leaders from universities?”

The reporter gives what he suspects are examples of what Cotton is likely talking about, including the Arkansas senator’s anger at historical analysis like the 1619 Project and critical race theory. The reporter reminds Psaki that Sen. Cotton is one of a slew of conservative and libertarian types who claim “there’s a liberal bias on campus that targets conservatives.” There isn’t much to say about the conservative movement’s issues with reality. Educational institutions are supposed to have a mandate to present their students with the realities of the world and history for discussion—something that flies in the face of the fairytale lies conservatives tell themselves. So Psaki asks the reporter if he knows what Cotton says he’s going to do with the tax money he plans on generating. The reporter, like the rest of us, only has the vaguest of ideas what Cotton’s plan is, except that it is connected to some promise of “job training” programs.

Psaki decides to end this idiocy here:

But I would say, if he’s trying to raise money for something, then our view is there’s lots of ways to do that. We know that a number of corporations hugely benefited financially during the pandemic. They could pay more taxes. We think the highest 1 percent of Americans can pay more taxes. And if he wants to have a conversation about worker training, we’d love to have him over and have that conversation.

Tom Cotton isn’t serious about helping anyone not named Tom Cotton so sadly, I doubt he will except that invitation.

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