President Joe Biden is facing harsh criticism for comments he made about the “nation’s children.”
During an event at the White House on Monday, Biden said, “Rebecca put a teacher’s creed into words when she said, ‘There is no such thing as someone else’s child.’ No such thing as someone else’s child. Our nation’s children are all our children.”
“As I often say, you teachers hold the kite strings to lift our national ambitions aloft. You really do. Imagine. Imagine. Just imagine if we didn’t have great teachers in this country. What difficulty. You are determining our future,” he added.
Watch the video below:
BIDEN: "There's no such thing as someone else's child. No such thing as someone else's child. Our nation's children are all our children." pic.twitter.com/U5VursxCjH
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 24, 2023
It did not take long for reactions to pour in.
The account for “Moms for Liberty” tweeted a graphic in response that stated, “We do NOT CO-PARENT with the GOVERNMENT.”
— Moms for Liberty (@Moms4Liberty) April 24, 2023
“So he can sniff them,” another user joked.
So he can sniff them.
— Hollywood Resistance (@ResistItAllTX) April 24, 2023
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) wrote, “Respectfully, you have it exactly BACKWARDS. Unless we’re talking about YOUR child, EVERY child is ‘someone else’s child.'”
🧵 1. .@POTUS, respectfully, you have it exactly BACKWARDS. Unless we’re talking about YOUR child, EVERY child is “someone else’s child.” https://t.co/dFIsPoya5n
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) April 25, 2023
Conservative commentator Ben Domenech tweeted, “My kids are not your kids.”
My kids are not your kids. https://t.co/Q9h0NzP1zz
— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) April 24, 2023
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) tweeted, “Mr. President, you are absolutely wrong.”
Mr. President, you are absolutely wrong. https://t.co/lwwEolunj0
— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) April 24, 2023
The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro chimed in, “Unless they’re unborn, in which case it’s your pure choice as to whether to kill them.”
Unless they're unborn, in which case it's your pure choice as to whether to kill them https://t.co/IQBjEjmL7U
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) April 24, 2023
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) tweeted, “Nice try passing Hunter Biden off to us but we’re good, thanks.”
Nice try passing Hunter Biden off to us but we’re good, thanks https://t.co/K7J7m3lAnG
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) April 24, 2023
“Your kids belong to you. They don’t belong to the government, and thank God they don’t belong to Joe Biden. Positions like this on the left are why I’m fighting in Congress to protect parental rights in education,” wrote Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio).
Your kids belong to you. They don’t belong to the government, and thank God they don’t belong to Joe Biden. Positions like this on the left are why I’m fighting in Congress to protect parental rights in education. https://t.co/AaKYoObpaB
— Max Miller (@MaxMillerOH) April 24, 2023
Biden did not claim children belong to the state. But his statement is an awkward phrase reminiscent of other liberals who have called for greater community involvement in helping take care of children.
Former MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry said in a 2016 commercial, “We have never invested as much in public education as we should have because we’ve always had kind of a private notion of children. Your kid is yours and totally your responsibility. We haven’t had a very collective notion of these are our children.”
“So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities,” she added.
Of course, as conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg pointed out, “If I fail to feed and clothe a child that I’ve never met that lives 50 miles from me, child services will not visit my house.”
It is one thing to encourage teachers to ensure they are giving children the best education they can receive. But, children do not belong to the community. And there is not some inherent responsibility for others to start sticking their fingers in other parents’ methods of raising or caring for their own children unsolicited.
