Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) voiced support for the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) development of Sesame Street in Iraq.
“This isn’t just funding a kids’ show for children — millions of children — in countries like Iraq,” Coons told CNN’s Michael Smerconish. “It’s a show that helps teach values, helps teach public health, helps prevent kids from dying from dysentery and disease and helps push values like collaboration, peacefulness, and cooperation in a society where the alternative is ISIS, extremism, and terrorism.”
Coons noted that USAID was spending a “small proportion” of the U.S. total federal spending, or about $30 billion of the $850 billion budget.
Smerconish later said 72% of his audience supports the children’s show.
“Now does that make it a better political issue than I said at the outset of the program? No, because I took five minutes to explain exactly what is that program in Iraq for ‘Sesame Street,’ teaching kids to wash their hands and not hate America,” Smerconish said.
USAID has also spent $270 million to support media companies, such as Politico, $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt, $4.5 million to combat disinformation in Kazakhstan, $2.5M to promote DEI in Serbia, $2 million for sex changes in Guatemala, $70K for a DEI musical in Ireland, and $32K for a trans comic book in Peru.
Discussing the taxpayer funding of Politico, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, “I was made aware that the funding from USAID to media outlets, including Politico, who I know has a seat in this room. I can confirm that more than $8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayers’ dime will no longer be happening. The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now.”
