Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) led an angry mob of fellow representatives and others in the harassment of a federal employee who locked them out of the Education Department on Friday.
The encounter, captured on video, showed Waters and other congresspeople berating the man for refusing to let them into the building.
The employee can be seen on the footage asking, “What business do you have here?”
Members of the crowd shouted back, “We are members of Congress!”
The mob came to the building to protest President Donald Trump’s plan to abolish the Education Department and indicated they wanted a meeting with the agency’s senior leadership.
Maxine Waters, Maxwell Frost, and other members of Congress who belong in senior living facilities are harassing and intimidating a federal employee for doing his job and guarding the Department of Education from being entered by them.
— Leftism (@LeftismForU) February 7, 2025
Maxine Waters has a history of inciting… pic.twitter.com/Dsd7PkCcHW
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) filmed the encounter as well, complaining that the employee would not allow them in the building. "There's this random guy out here who's refusing to let us in," he said.
Waters was kind enough to tell Frost what the man's name is.
ELON IS ALLOWED IN THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. NOT YOUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES OR STUDENTS & PARENTS. I WILL BE BACK. pic.twitter.com/UikHHSUZXS
— Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@MaxwellFrostFL) February 7, 2025
Multiple Democrats signed a letter to acting Education Department Secretary Denise Carter requesting an “urgent meeting” to discuss “the Trump administration’s reported effort to dismantle the Department of Education.”
We are deeply concerned by numerous credible public reports that the Trump Administration has plans to illegally dismantle or drastically reduce the Department through Executive Order. As Members vested with oversight power, we demand a discussion of what such a reduction of the Department would entail, including which programs would be cut, which would be moved into the jurisdiction of other agencies, and the projected impact of those changes on Americans across the country.
Those who are concerned about losing the Education Department do have reason to be worried. President Trump vowed to do away with the agency at multiple points last year.
In November, he said he would be “closing up” the Department of Education “and sending all education and education work and needs back to the states” because “they’ll do a much better job of it.”
We spend more money per pupil by three times than any other nation, and yet we're absolutely at the bottom. We're one of the worst. So you can't do worse. We're going to end education coming out of Washington, DC. We're going to close it up, all those buildings all over the place. And you have people that in many cases hate our children. We're going to send it all back to the States.
President Trump is getting rid of the Dept of Education
— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) November 13, 2024
What else should he abolish? pic.twitter.com/Ag4nWCxTD2
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) recently introduced a bill that would abolish the agency. He announced this move in a post on X, saying it would “return power back to teachers and parents.”
I just reintroduced H.R. 899, a one sentence bill to TERMINATE the federal department of education and return power back to teachers and parents.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) January 31, 2025
This is it, the entire bill: pic.twitter.com/2dLYVE9Iwn
Unfortunately for Waters and her friends, this bit of grandstanding is not going to help their cause. While they prefer to have as much federal control over education as possible, there is little they can do.
Trump has floated the idea of shutting down the department via executive order. But this would almost certainly be challenged in court. It would require an act of Congress to eliminate the agency. With Republican majorities in both chambers, this could happen.
However, there could be enough GOP holdouts to ensure that the department remains, which means voters will have to lean hard on their representatives to ensure that they vote against keeping the agency in place.
Without an Education Department, it will be harder for the federal government to force its views on states when it comes to educating children. The Biden administration sought to use the department to force gender ideology and other ridiculous ideas into the classroom. If Trump fulfills his promise, then state governments will be the ones who will decide how children are educated.
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