MISSING THE POINT

Mike Pence Bizarrely Says His Kids Prove Affirmative Action Is Unnecessary

All three of Pence’s children are white, but that didn’t stop him from using their college experience to weigh in on affirmative action.

As right-wing politicians roundly cheered the Supreme Court’s decision to end affirmative action in higher education, Mike Pence may have had the strangest take. “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 said in an interview with MSNBC. “But I can tell you as a father of three college graduates those days are long over.” Some important context for that remark: Pence’s three college-graduate children are all white, a fact which commentators are quick to call out. The former Trump vice president-turned-Republican presidential contender didn’t clarify how, exactly, his kids’ college experience sheds light on the need for affirmative action.