'Thoroughly debunked': Oklahoma schools chief reamed on MSNBC for pushing election lies

Oklahoma state superintendent Ryan Walters, a far-right MAGA figure who has ordered schools to buy Trump Bibles and called teachers unions "terrorists," faced a dressing down by MSNBC's Antonia Hylton on Friday over new plans to teach Oklahoma students that the 2020 presidential election was rigged — a plan that is already facing legal challenges.

"Let's start with that curriculum," said Hylton. "Why would you want Oklahoma students exposed to thoroughly debunked election conspiracy theories in the classroom?"

"Here's the reality. Look, President Trump should have won the 2020 election," said Walters. "You know, you look at things like the ballot dumps, you look at the mail-in ballots, you look at the voter fraud, you look at the manipulation by the media and foreign countries. And look, what we've got in the standards are facts. We want critical thinking students, we want critical thinking Americans. We want them to look at the data, look at the statistics, and come to their own conclusion. We're not going to allow the left to force a narrative onto our kids."

"This isn't a narrative from the left, Mr. Walters," cut in Hylton. "These are claims that failed time and time again in courts of law. People who, I'm sure you know, had the opportunity to bring quality evidence in front of judges and they failed. So why would you want students to spend time on that?"

"Look, it's about the facts, and they can come to their own conclusion," said Walters. "The students can look at these facts and say what happened in the election of 2020, but what we're not going to do is allow left-wing activists and the teachers unions to come in and drive the narrative. Kids need to look at the facts and listen. If I was the head of the most left-wing radical organization in the country, the head of the teacher's union, I'd hate these standards too. But the reality is, is we're going to teach Americanism, facts, and we're going to let kids come to their own conclusion on the election of 2020."

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"This doesn't really have a whole lot to do with teachers unions. They're not even a party to this lawsuit," said Hylton. "You're being sued, by the way, by a lawyer who is a former attorney general, a Republican. And they're alleging, basically, that you tried to pull the wool over the eyes of fellow education leaders. I want to read this to make sure I get it right. Half of the Oklahoma State Board of Education claim they were unaware they approved the standards in February ... when they approved those standards, that the final version had significant differences from the version they had seen from your office in December. Were you trying to mislead them about what was in these standards?"

"Absolutely not," said Walters. "I mean, listen, some Republicans have been bought off with 30 pieces of silver from the teachers union."

"The teachers union isn't involved in this lawsuit," Hylton reminded him. She also confronted Walters with one of his own posts to X from April, in which he called the new standards "unapologetically conservative." "Is that not you kind of giving the game away there, saying that instead of the left-wing indoctrination, I'm trying to indoctrinate kids into my conservative worldview?"

"No," said Walters. "Look, conservatives want to teach history. They want our kids to understand America. They want kids to love the Constitution, understand the Constitution."

"You specifically said conservative. Why?" Hylton pressed him. "Why are you even mentioning a political tilt or ideology when you are in charge of public school instruction?"

"Because conservatives love their country, they love our history, they love the Constitution," said Walters. "So, yeah, look, our standards are unapologetically pro-American. They unapologetically cover the 2020 election with facts, and we're incredibly proud of it. They're the best in the country. Every state should have history standards, the way that ours look."

Watch the video below via MSNBC or at the link here.

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