Mike Pence, the former vice president once dubbed “the whitest person in politics,” highlighted the experience of his white college graduate children to argue affirmative action is no longer needed, baffling Twitter users on Thursday.
“There may have been a time 50 years ago when we needed to affirmatively take steps to correct long-term racial bias in institutions of higher education,” Pence told NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns. “But I can tell you, as the father of three college graduates, those days are long over.”
Pence was reacting to the Supreme Court’s controversial decision to end affirmative action in education, a system designed to help Black and Latino students gain access to higher education and correct historic underrepresentation and discrimination against those groups.
Pence and his wife Karen, both wealthy and influential college graduates, have three adult children: Michael Pence, Charlotte Pence Bond and Audrey Pence. They attended Purdue, DePaul and Yale universities, respectively.
Twitter users were left scratching their heads:
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said that Dasha Burns works for MSNBC. She is a correspondent for NBC News.
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.