Biden's DHS taps teachers union pres Randi Weingarten to help fight 'emerging threats to the homeland'

The Department of Homeland Security announced that it had appointed Randi Weingarten, president of American Federation of Teachers, to the Homeland Security Academic Partnership Council (HSAPC).

The HSAPC "will provide strategic and actionable recommendations to the Secretary on campus safety and security, improved coordination, research priorities, hiring, and more," according to the DHS.

“Leaders of our academic institutions and campus life have a great deal to offer in helping us counter the evolving and emerging threats to the homeland,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. 

"The Homeland Security Academic Partnership Council’s insights into strategic research, innovation, career development, and partnership opportunities for the Department will support our mission to safeguard the American people, and help our country think through and prepare for whatever threats lie ahead. I am grateful to each of the twenty Council members I am appointing today for their willingness to serve, and I look forward to receiving their guidance and recommendations."

Weingarten and the council will "provide advice and recommendations in response to taskings by the Secretary" on matters that include "Improving coordination and sharing of actionable threat and security-related information, including threats of violence as well as targeted violence and terrorism prevention."

"Safety and security, including prevention, response, mitigation, recovery, and other emergency management and preparedness measures," and "Methods to develop career opportunities to support a 21st century DHS workforce" are also part of the job.

Weingarten has been appointed to the council for a two-year term. Chairing the council is Teach for America CEO Elisa Villanueva Beard and vice chairing is American Association of Community Colleges President and CEO Dr. Walter Bumphus.

Weingarten claimed in December that she was attacked by Libs of TikTok for wanting to keep pornographic books such as "Gender Queer" in schools.

The teachers union head said that this was an attack of “baseless claims not worth repeating” but also stated that “being attacked by the notorious homophobic operator is a badge of honor.” 

Weingarten also faced backlash over visiting Ukraine in October, writing that she "Woke up this am to reports of disgusting Russian missile strikes in Kyiv, Lviv & other cities."

People questioned why the head of an American teachers union would be heading to the frontlines in Ukraine as children back home continued to face learning deficits following pandemic-era remote learning, a learning style that Weingarten supported and pushed for even as cases waned.

The president of America’s second-largest teachers union claimed in September that the founding fathers did not question slavery, stating that "No one had questioned it before we decided as Americans that we are endowed by our creator with unalienable rights."

Twitter users noted that founding father Thomas Jefferson, an author of the 1776 Declaration of Independence, actually sparked a widespread debate on slavery over a decade prior to the Constitution being put into practice. The section he wrote opposing slavery was struck from the Declaration.

Weingarten has also declared that teachers are "social justice warriors" in a September town hall event with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

"Very few teachers thought that they were going into teaching to be social justice warriors," she said. She then claimed that teachers were burnt out because they were unable to answer the "questions of children" and that they have to be the "mask police."