Rep. Lateefah Simon Slams GOP Colleague’s Misuse Of MLK Quote: ‘Keep Dr. King’s Name Out Your Mouth’

During a recent Health Care and Financial Services hearing, California Rep. Lateefah Simon shut down her colleague’s wrong interpretation of a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quote.

As a subcommittee of the government department, the area these representatives oversee and help regulate is federal healthcare policies, according to Atlanta Black Star. On June 25, a preceding event called “Sacrificing Excellence for Ideology: The Real Cost of DEI” was held by the group. A video clip of Simon challenging the remarks from some members of Congress who sided with Trump’s denunciation of DEI laws and initiatives nationwide, deeming them an organizational framework with negative impacts on society, is spreading across the internet.

Why did Congresswoman Simon criticize her colleague’s use of Martin Luther King’s quotes?

Republican Virginia Rep. John McGuire was one of the congressmen who supported the Trump Administration’s stance on DEI. During his 4 1/2-minute speech, he explained his views. 

“To me, DEI stands for ‘didn’t earn it,’” McGuire said before saying DEI programming is “disastrous… Marxist, it destroys innovation and motivation.” 

This led McGuire to reference a section from King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech. He asked the panel whether they stood by the activist’s belief that people should be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.

Furious about the lack of education, the recording of Simon’s response showed her addressing the continued tactic by her counterparts of taking King’s words out of context.

“Very few of you have read and studied and have sat in Ebenezer Baptist Church, so I would ask you: You keep Dr. King’s name out of your mouth,” she said.

Additionally, Simon, who is legally blind and made history as California’s first Muslim member of Congress, noted what the hearing revealed from her perspective about the state of American politics under Trump’s leadership as a Black “disabled woman.”

“Today’s hearing says quietly, and actually out loud, who the majority believe is allowed to belong in this country,” she said. “They used Dr. King’s name in deep vein, who has a place in the hierarchy that was never meant to be questioned.”

“It is a bigotry. It is a hypocrisy,” she added. “Republicans, like I said before, will quote Dr. King all day, will bring forth Lincoln and will talk about Frederick Douglass in the same breath that they are gutting civil rights offices in our governments, in the same breath where they seek to ban AP African-American studies that tells the true story of this country.”

Simon received praise in the comments section via Instagram.

“So proud she is my representative!” one person commented.

“THIS!!! TRUTH BE TOLD, QUEEN. 🔥🔥🔥,” someone else wrote.

“SO many strong women coming out blazin I LOVE IT,” another person added.