Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer referred to mentally challenged children as “retarded” during a recent podcast appearance.
Schumer, 70, used the term, widely recognized as offensive, to describe people with mental disabilities during a Sunday interview with OneNYCHA, a podcast dedicated to highlighting issues related to public housing.
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One of the hosts, Saundrea Coleman, mentioned a new initiative in New York intending to shelter homeless people even though there are some opponents to the plan, which prompted Schumer to discuss his experiences.
On the @OneNycha podcast, @SenSchumer refers to mentally disabled children as “retarded.” pic.twitter.com/4cwrs8wMFW
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 14, 2021
“I have found that my whole career,” he said regarding skeptics of the proposal. “I wanted to build, when I first was an assemblyman, they wanted to build a congregant living place for retarded children, and the whole neighborhood was against it.”
“These are harmless kids. They just needed some help. We got it done, [but] it took a while,” Schumer added.
A representative for the senator acknowledged his word choice was “inappropriate and outdated.”
“For decades, Sen. Schumer has been an ardent champion for enlightened policy and full funding of services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” the spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “He used an inappropriate and outdated word in his description of an effort he supported that was led by the AHRC to build a group home in his Brooklyn district decades ago to provide housing and services to children with developmental disabilities. He is sincerely sorry for his use of the outdated and hurtful language.”
The AHRC is an organization dedicated to fighting for people with mental disabilities. The organization’s title is an acronym that previously stood for “the Association for the Help of Retarded Children,” though the group has dropped that part.
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Schumer has faced scrutiny for some of his more controversial remarks in the past. In March 2020, the senator threatened Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, both appointed by former President Donald Trump, would “pay the price” for ruling against his preferred positions.
“They’re taking away fundamental rights,” the senator said during an appearance at a pro-abortion rights rally held outside the U.S. Supreme Court. “I want to tell you, Gorsuch, [and] I want to tell you, Kavanaugh: You have released the whirlwind!”
