Trump Education Secretary Linda McMahon received a savage grilling from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) over her gutting of the legal department meant to deal with complaints of discrimination in the school system.

During a contentious hearing exchange on Tuesday, Murphy demanded, “You’re saying you were trying to figure out how to better resolve cases. You resolved not a single case in Connecticut in 2025. I mean, how do you defend that? Not a single child in Connecticut got a positive resolution from the Department of Education for their discrimination claims. Seventy of them had disability claims. How do you defend that?”

McMahon, who is also from Connecticut, replied, “Well, it is very difficult when I’m trying to address those particular issues, except to know that those things were happening and we are looking forward to make sure that they stop happening.”

“But you fired half the department,” Murphy hit back.

“But that is hindsight,” insisted McMahon as Murphy asked, “What does that mean?”

“You know perfectly well what it is — we’ve brought people on board to handle these cases because I believe that they should be handled. We should be dismissing these cases. We should be finding resolutions to them. And so those attorneys are being brought back,” McMahon continued.

Murphy interjected, “How many of them brought back?”

McMahon answered, “All the ones that were fired who didn’t take early retirement, they came back. And we are, in this budget, have more money to hire more lawyers.”

Murphy hit back, “No, this budget proposes a 35% reduction to the Office of Civil Rights, and so that’s my final question.”

McMahon cut in, “No, but it is a budget of increasing dollars for civil rights. And we are hiring more lawyers.”

Murphy hit back, “No, it’s not. This budget has a 35% proposed reduction for the Office of Civil Rights.”

“Well, we are moving forward to make sure that rapid,” McMahon added as Murphy insisted, “Oh, wait. That’s true, right?”

As McMahon tried to continue, Murphy insisted, “Well, but let’s just get some — let’s just agree to the facts, right? This — you will agree that this budget reduces — you’re proposing to reduce funding for the department by 35%.”

McMahon replied, “No, I’m not agreeing to that. Here’s what I’m saying. We are bringing back lawyers. We are hiring new lawyers to address this backlog with the person who had been so successful before in getting this done. When she left office, there was a 4,500 backlog. And now, from the Biden administration, there’s 19,000 more. And so we are addressing them for rapid mediation, expanded resolution, and multi-regional teams that we have now put back in place. So, addressing the issues that happened in the past.”

Murphy cut in, “It’s like black is white! It’s a 35% cut — you are proposing.”

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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