Senate Republicans are steamrolling opposition to even the most controversial of President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominations, but that didn’t stop Democrats from coming off the top rope for Linda McMahon.
Legislators on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee poked at the WWE co-founder and pick to lead the Department of Education under Trump in a Thursday hearing. Dems grilled the former Trump Cabinet member on her blind spots and the darkest days of the wrestling promotion she helped lead.
In a particularly tense exchange, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., asked McMahon to answer for her part in allegedly enabling the sexual abuse and exploitation of children at WWE.
“You have been named in a lawsuit which alleges that you and your husband allowed for systemic and pervasive abuse of underage children to persist in your business for years,” Baldwin said. “If confirmed, you will be responsible for overseeing the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights… I am so concerned about whether sexual assault survivors on campus can trust you to support them.”
“I have a granddaughter who is now in college. I have two grandsons who were in college,” McMahon responded.
Allegations that the WWE turned a blind eye to rampant abuse of “ring boys” — minors taken on by the wrestling promotion to work as gofers — have plagued the company for decades. While the wrestling company was fighting off the stigma of rampant steroid use in the early ’90s, former ring boy Tom Cole went public with claims that announcer Mel Phillips and wrestler Terry Garvin had sexually abused and harassed him as a minor. The Cole case was settled for $55,000 and an offer of continued employment with the company. The new lawsuit also centers on misconduct by Phillips.
In another dust-up, New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, pushed McMahon to reconcile her purported support for popular federal education reforms with seeming her willingness to dismantle the Department of Education.
“It’s almost like we’re being subjected to a very elegant gaslighting here,” Hassan said. “You talked about the need to enforce protections for Jewish students on campuses, but the very department where the enforcement would take place is the Department of Education.”
McMahon came in for one more drubbing, when Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., pinned her on the question of whether Black history would be taught in schools under the Trump administration. McMahon, as sure as anyone on Earth that an uncertain ending bumps ticket sales for the next meeting, dodged the question.
“I’m not quite certain and I’d like to look into it further and get back to you on that,” McMahon said.
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