DeVos: Americans should stop ‘hiding behind screens and Twitter handles’

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Monday lamented what she said was an unwillingness by universities and colleges to seek “truth,” and called on Americans to stop being mean to one another on social media.

"It’s easy to be nasty hiding behind screens and Twitter handles. It’s not so easy when we’re face to face," DeVos in a speech in Philadelphia hosted by the National Constitution Center.

DeVos’ boss, President Donald Trump, frequently uses Twitter to attack his critics, such as calling Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer “Cryin’ Chuck” and his former aide Omarosa Manigualt Newman a “dog.”

DeVos’ statement on truth also comes less than a week after Trump’s insisted that an independent estimate of nearly 3,000 deaths in Puerto Rico resulting from last year’s Hurricane Maria was an attempt by Democrats to make him look bad.

And last month, Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, raised eyebrows when he told NBC’s Chuck Todd “truth isn’t truth.” Giuliani later said he was only trying to make the point on the Russia investigation that witnesses can often have different recollections.

DeVos, during her address, focused on college campuses, which she says, shut down alternative viewpoints, including more conservative voices. DeVos said too often students are told to “find your truth” and that nothing is objectively good or bad.

"The issue is that we’ve abandoned truth,” DeVos later added. “Learning is nothing if not a pursuit of truth. Truth and the freedom to pursue it is for everyone, everywhere, regardless of where you were born, who your parents are, or your economic situation. Truth can be pursued, and it can be known. Yet students are often told there is no such thing.”

During a question-and-answer session, DeVos was asked whether the current government administration should heed her call for more civil discourse.

DeVos said her comment was focused on people who are communicating anonymously, instead of “face to face.”