A former GOP Senate candidate and far-right activist drew backlash on social media for belittling a massive group of minority medical students seen in a viral video.
Lauren Witzke reshared a video to her X feed showing dozens of Black medical school students at a conference in New Orleans who she deemed were on course for “medical malpractice bailouts.”
People flooded her comments, many of whom called her comments racist.
“What a terrible thing to say. Shame on you. The best doctors I have had were black. We don’t need any more division in this country, and here you are fanning the flames,” one person replied.
Her comments echo the anti-DEI sentiments circulating among hardline conservatives and many right-wingers who believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion policies are inherently racist and discriminatory and cause more harm than good to industries that implement them.
The war on DEI intensified after the Supreme Court declared race-based college admission policies unconstitutional last summer. Since then, DEI opponents have worked to ban DEI positions, anti-bias training, diversity statements, and race-based hiring practices at state offices, and defund DEI initiatives at public colleges.
Some critics even started claiming that some industries and professional schools lowered their standards to make room for minority applicants and job candidates.
In February, false allegations began to spread that Duke University’s School of Medicine lowered its admissions standards as part of its DEI efforts after conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro posted a thread on X claiming that some of the nation’s top hospitals are abandoning key metrics in their hiring processes.
That thread included a video of a Duke surgical resident saying the school had transitioned to “a completely holistic review process” and abandoned “all sorts of metrics and screens.”
Billionaire Elon Musk, who hasn’t shied away from sharing his opposition to DEI policies, replied to Shapiro’s thread writing, “People will die because of this.”
In a recent interview with Don Lemon, Musk went on to repeat the false claim that Duke University lowered its standards, further alleging that DEI policies could cause harm to hospital patients, which Lemon denounced and called purely “speculative.”
Duke released a statement last month responding to the allegations.
“Duke University’s School of Medicine has not lowered its standards for medical school admission or graduation, and continues to rely on GPA and MCAT scores, among other criteria,” the Duke Health statement read. “Achieving health equity while recruiting diverse talent within our education and training programs allows us to deliver the highest quality care to our patients and makes Duke a world leader in innovative and transformative research.”
As a DEI opponent, Witzke has also shared anti-DEI sentiments on her social feeds, many of which attack hiring practices.
Witzke ran for U.S. Senate in 2020 in Delaware and won the Republican primary, but lost the general election to Democrat incumbent Christopher Coons.
During her run, she gained popularity among conservatives for promoting an “America First” platform that supported a 10-year moratorium on immigration, welfare limits for married couples with children, and faith-based substance abuse recovery programs.
At that time, her ties to QAnon became widely known, but she worked to distance herself from that camp of conspiracy theorists. The QAnon conspiracy alleges there’s a “deep state” network of enemies against Donald Trump, some of whom are pedophiles and child sex traffickers.
She’s currently being sued for defamation by a couple in Texas who she accused of pedophilia and human trafficking after the two men posted about the birth of their surrogate twins on social media, according to Delaware Online.
Witzke, who identifies as a Christian and a nationalist, has publicized her anti-LGBTQ views and her defense of members belonging to the Proud Boys organization who she called examples of “patriotic masculinity.”
