Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said critical race theory was a “stalking horse” used by Republicans in the Virginia gubernatorial race to capitalize on anger parents harbored toward remote schooling during the pandemic.
“One of the things that I think happened in Virginia, after having schools closed for so long, people were really focused on schools and education,” Clinton said in an interview on “Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist.
“I don’t think that the Democrats and Terry [McAuliffe] understood how disoriented parents, particularly moms, were about the experience that they had gone through,” she said.
Glenn Youngkin, who beat former Gov. Terry McCauliffe in November, becoming the first Republican to win the office in over a decade, made education a key issue in the race.
Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin speaks on the phone as he watches results come in on election night at the Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles on November 02, 2021 in Chantilly, Virginia. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“The critical race theory argument was a kind of a stalking horse for all of the anxiety and the fear of zoom education, of kids being depressed because they weren’t with their friends, of moms having to leave the workforce to take care of their kids,” Clinton said.
“There were some real issues that needed to be addressed in a careful, thoughtful way,” she said. “But the other side knew ‘Okay, there’s an issue? Let’s really rev it up. Let’s get people upset and angry.'” (RELATED: Ethics Experts Alarmed By 93% Decrease In Clinton Foundation Donations Since $250 Million Peak In 2009)
Clinton’s interview on Sunday was to promote her new MasterClass on the power of resilience. She shared a part of her lesson with Geist, in which she read the speech she would have given if she had won the 2016 presidential election.
“It helps to encapsulate who I am, what I believe in, and what my hopes were for the kind of country that I want for my grandchildren, and that I want for the world, that I believe in that is America at its best,” Clinton said before reciting the speech aloud for the first time.
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