Democrat Senator defends USAID, who allegedly funded the Sesame Street Show in Iraq to teach “values”
Delaware Sen. Chris Koons agreed to CNN host Michael Smerconish. Sesame Street Show in Iraq They can use taxpayer funds to teach children in Iraqi about “value.”
Smerconish, on Saturday’s title show, gave the US Agency for International Development (USAID) $20 million to a nonprofit called the Sesame Workshop and produced a show called “Ahlan Simsim Iraq” that said, “Inclusion, Mutual Respect.” , and commented on the report that they produced a show called “Promoting Mutual Respect.” Understanding across ethnic, religious and sectarian groups. “The show begins in 2021 and runs until 2027.
He asked viewers everywhere if he believed this was an effective use of “soft power,” despite the backlash from conservative lawmakers.
“This isn’t just funding children’s shows for millions of children in countries like Iraq,” Coons said. “It helps to teach values, teach public health, prevents children from dysentery and illness, pushes values such as collaboration, peace, ISIS, extremism, terrorism, and social cooperation. It will help you to do it.”
Senator Chris Coons gave his opinion on CNN’s “Smerconish” Saturday. (CNN screenshot)
He continued. “And in your point, it’s a dollar penny. The US Department of Defense’s annual budget is around $850 billion. USAID spent about $30 billion. That’s the total spending of our federal spending. Part of that. Political scientist Joseph Nye often says it’s not just soft power, it’s clever power.”
Smerconish also appeared to defend the funds for the show as he voted their viewers.
“Nai himself said that in the short term, hard power is usually better than soft power, but the long term effect may be against it. Or, the sender of my Sirius XM radio show said yesterday. So who teaches children in Iraq? Birds or al-Qaeda help us all and teaches us against extremism.”
USAID is accused of providing $20 million to Sesame Workshop for its program in Iraq. (Getty Images)
Near the end of his show, Smerconish revealed that 72% of viewers support taxpayers funding the international series. He argued that the political debate surrounding it likely came from “soundbite” politics rather than from the program itself.
“Now, is that a better political issue than the beginning of the program? No, it took me five minutes to explain exactly what the Iraqi program is for ‘Sesame Street’. I hate America,” Smelconish said. “And like I told Chris Koons, you know, it’s much easier to deny, and they’ve made all this money blank EV cars. Can you imagine it being spent filling in? In Vietnam?”
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The Iraqi Children’s Show was one of several examples Elon Musk’s Government Efficiency (DOGE) used to denounce agencies Waste spending and abuse.
Elon Musk, Doge and the Trump administration are targeting USAID for wasted spending and abuse. (Getty Images)
Doge and the Trump administration were aiming to close the agency as a result. Federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s efforts to depart thousands of USAID workers on Friday.
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Emma Colton from Fox News contributed to this report.