CNN even noted it was an "election year" before giving Obama's
Education Secretary a chance to share his "proudest" accomplishment from
his time in office, no doubt bolstering the administration's
re-election message.
Host Brooke Baldwin declined to ask any tough questions of Secretary of
Education Arne Duncan during a lame Tuesday afternoon interview.
Baldwin topped it all off with a soft parting question "on a more
personal note."
"I guess my final question, on a more personal note, Secretary Duncan,
is we are in this election year. I want you to just think about this.
Give me one achievement, within, obviously, your wheel house being
education, that you feel, I don't know, proudest of from your three-plus
years of office?" she teed up the secretary.
Duncan responded that there were "many things" he was proud of, but the
singular accomplishment was getting $40 million for Pell Grants without
costing taxpayers "a nickel."
[Video below. Audio here [1].]
A transcript of the segment, which aired on April 24 on Newsroom at 3:06 p.m. EDT, is as follows:
[3:06]
BROOKE BALDWIN: We showed you the President just last hour, President
Obama, speaking in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on the issue of student
loans. And as we told you, the current interest rate on the
federally-backed student loans is scheduled to double. It's to double,
actually, July 1, from the current rate of 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent
unless Congress acts. Here is the President taking a dig at a
Congressional Republican he doesn't name in the speech.
(Video Clip)
President BARACK OBAMA: He said she had very little tolerance for
people who tell me they graduate with debt, because there's no reason
for that.
I'm just quoting here. I'm just quoting. She said – she said students
who rack up student loan debt are just sitting on their butts having
opportunity dumped into your lap.
(End Video Clip)
BALDWIN: So, we are in an election year as you very well know, and the
President's tweaking Republicans on an issue that is hugely important to
millions of young voters. He needs their votes. But I want you to hear
his likely opponent Mitt Romney speaking just yesterday.
(Video Clip)
MITT ROMNEY, Republican presidential candidate: I fully support the
effort to extend the low interest rate on student loans. There was some
concern that that would expire halfway through the year, and I support
extending the temporary relief on interest rates for student –
(End Video Clip)
BALDWIN: So, Romney is with the President on this one, wants to prevent
the rate on student loans from doubling come the first of July. And the
office of House Speaker John Boehner says Boehner is trying to work
something out as well. So got us thinking where exactly is the fight
here. I want to bring in Arne Duncan, he is the President's Secretary of
Education. He joins me live. Mr. Secretary, it's nice to have you back
on the show.
ARNE DUNCAN, Ssecretary of Education: Hi, good afternoon, Brooke. Thanks for the opportunity.
BALDWIN: Thank you. I know a lot of – some folks are saying that there
really is no fight here. The White House wants us to think there is one,
simply because it's good for the President's election campaign. What do
you say to that?
(...)
BALDWIN: Do you agree, though, that this really won't come down to a
fight, and that some people are saying there really is no ruckus over
this after all, that both sides are agreeing?
(...)
BALDWIN: Do you, as U.S. Education Secretary, feel comfortable being
drawn into a political battle such as this one, especially as we point
out, in an election year?
(...)
BALDWIN: Okay, so let's put politics aside. I guess my final question,
on a more personal note, Secretary Duncan, is we are in this election
year. I want you to just think about this. Give me one achievement,
within, obviously, your wheel house being education, that you feel, I
don't know, proudest of from your three-plus years of office? Just one
achievement.
DUNCAN: Well there're many things we've worked extraordinarily hard on and I'm proud of.
BALDWIN: Give me one.
DUNCAN: At the top of that list. The top of that list would be getting
an additional $40 billion for Pell grants, $40 billion for Pell grants,
the biggest increase since the G.I. bill. We did that without going back
to taxpayers for a nickel. We simply stopped subsidizing banks, didn't
think they needed the money. Put all that money to the young people.
That was very controversial here in Washington. Lots of folks fought
that, we thought it was absolutely common sense. We got that done, and
we have to keep fighting for that, because there are people in Congress
today that want to scale back Pell grants, and I think anyone who thinks
we need a less-educated workforce, we need folks to have less access to
college – for me, as a country, that's cutting off our nose to spite
our face.