A REPUBLICAN senator has drawn criticism after giving a bizarre high school commencement speech.
Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska lashed out at “thugs in China” in a message for Fremont High School’s graduating class of 2020.
“We are going to beat the virus,” Sasse says in the pre-recorded video, which has gone unexpectedly viral.
“We’re going to have to have a serious reckoning with the thugs in China who let this mess spiral out of control by lying about it.”
Sasse targets China again later in the speech, saying in years to come the students will reflect on “that time when China started a big global pandemic that created the worst public health crisis in over a century and brought the economy to its knees, and we had to stay home and everybody was hoarding toilet paper.”
In comments that mental health experts have called “tasteless and demeaning”, Senator Sasse also takes aim at psychologists.
“There are a whole bunch of people who make a whole bunch of money by just trying to help other people forget high school. They’re called psychologists,” he says.
“In fact, 95% of all gainfully employed psychologists – and I’m serious, there are dozens of them that are gainfully employed – their job is really just to help people forget high school.”
“There will always be money to be made in psychology. No, that’s a joke. Do not. If you’re headed to college, do not, do not major in psychology. That part is not a joke.”
Sasse also pokes fun at the obesity epidemic among young people.
“Back in the day when we were a lot fitter than you people are,” he said, “we used to have to climb ropes all the way up to the ceiling of the gym all the time.”
Inexplicably, Sasse also tells the Fremont High graduates “Everybody named Jeremy is the worst.”
Sasse has been urged to apologize by Fremont school board member, Michael Petersen.
“You deserved better than the graduation remarks from Senator Ben Sasse,” Petersen told students in a Facebook post.
“The racism, implying that our graduates are fat and lazy, disparaging teachers and attacking the mental health profession are despicable.”
A spokesman for Sasse, James Wegmann, told the Omaha World-Herald the senator was joking.
“It’s ridiculous that some politically addicted folks are complaining about Ben calling out China in a joke.”
Wegmann defended the comments, adding:
“He’s said this for months, because it’s true: The Chinese Communist Party’s coronavirus coverup wasted time that could have contained the spread — those lies cost innocent lives in China and around the world.
“Pretending graduates are too fragile to hear the truth is silly.”
The Nebraska Counseling Association called Sasse’s comments about psychology “tasteless and demeaning”, and said the Senator “showed an alarming lack of sensitivity”.
Sasse’s comments went viral as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traded barbs with China over COVID-19.
Pompeo claimed the Communist Party is a danger to the United States and global democracy.
A Chinese official responded that Pompeo is a “blabbermouth”.
