Obama’s Secretary of Education Compares Anti-Maskers, Anti-Vaxxers to Afghanistan Suicide Bombers

Leah Barkoukis

Aug 30, 2021 8:00 AM August 30, 2021 8:00 AM

Former President Obama’s Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, was criticized on social media after he drew a comparison between anti-mask and anti-vaccine Americans and suicide bombers.

“Have you noticed how strikingly similar both the mindsets and actions are between the suicide bombers at Kabul’s airport, and the anti-mask and anti-vax people here?” Duncan wrote on Twitter. “They both blow themselves up, inflict harm on those around them, and are convinced they are fighting for freedom.”

The responses were brutal.

Delete your account, now, you shameless, soulless ghoul. I'm a pro-mask, pro-vaccine conservative - by personal choice because of my lung damage from Iraq, not by mandate - and you literally SUCK at this thing called being a human being.
— Matthew Betley ???? (@MatthewBetley) August 29, 2021

Wow you’re a real piece of human garbage. https://t.co/xN7ZbKOWHt
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) August 29, 2021

And people wonder why I blast the public school system & ABSOLUTELY will homeschool my kids. Lunatics like this are brainwashing your children.
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) August 30, 2021

This was an Obama Cabinet member. This is what they think of you. https://t.co/4yAV6d02KZ
— Jack Posobiec ???? (@JackPosobiec) August 29, 2021

No. I haven’t… because they’re not similar. You lack a soul and brain. The only thing striking is your ignorance.
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) August 29, 2021

delete your account
— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) August 29, 2021

Are you an insane person?
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) August 29, 2021

this tweet will just make people think mental illness is a side effect of the vaccine
— Jessica O’Boy-Football-is-Back-Donnell (@heckyessica) August 29, 2021

On the day that President Biden met the caskets containing the fallen soldiers who were victims of suicide bombers, I can't imagine a more inappropriate Tweet from former Education Secretary @arneduncan

There's no comparison between non-masking, non-vaxxing & terrorism.

Shame.
— Joel M. Petlin (@Joelmpetlin) August 29, 2021

Current and former cabinet secretaries have every right to have their opinions and express them, but it would probably be better for American governance if ppl at that level did not reveal themselves to be off the deep end https://t.co/M4Xk6Ra50x
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) August 29, 2021

While not going quite as far as Duncan, former Republican Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger recently told Americans who are against masking “screw your freedom.”