A spokesman for President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign went on a Twitter tangent on Thursday, insisting that Democrats’ uproar over proposed federal cuts to the Special Olympics is phony because they’re pro-abortion.
Matt Wolking, the newly appointed deputy director of communications for Trump’s 2020 campaign, accused Democrats of seeing “abortion as the cure for Down syndrome and other disabilities.”
“The idea that **killing** children with disabilities is just fine but reducing taxpayer funding for a private charity that will still flourish without it is ‘cruel’ is demented. But that’s the Democrats’ position,” Wolking tweeted as part of a thread. “Their criticisms of [Education Secretary Betsy Devos] as ‘cruel’ are not sincere.”
Wolking was appointed this month to lead Trump’s “aggressive rapid response team,” which the campaign said will refute attacks and expose “the fake news media,” according to The Washington Times. He previously worked for Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, DeVos defended the Education Department’s proposal to eliminate federal funding for the Special Olympics, which provides year-round sports training and athletic competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
On Wednesday, after receiving intense backlash, DeVos released a statement saying the Special Olympics is a great enough organization to raise money without the federal government’s help.
“There are dozens of worthy nonprofits that support students and adults with disabilities that don’t get a dime of federal grant money,” she added.
The Special Olympics has meanwhile started an online campaign to advocate for continued federal funding, which it said would go to its educational programs in schools.
Dr. Timothy P. Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics International, stressed the importance of these educational services in a statement and said that support for the programs “has been matched by many members of congress - both republicans and democrats.”
“This work, as distinct from the traditional Special Olympics program, is critical to the future not just of education in schools but of the country,” he said, adding that the lessons the Special Olympics programs offer “are critically the responsibility not just of the volunteer sector but of our elected leaders.”