Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay says Michelle Obama is promoting racism when she warns about the return of segregated schools across the United States.
"What she's pushing for is racism. Michelle Obama and Barack Obama can't do anything unless there's a certain amount of race involved in it," DeLay told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"Frankly, we have improved our public schools all across this nation. We're spending tons more money than we ever have," he said Monday.
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In a speech Friday before high school seniors in Topeka, Kansas, the first lady marked the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which ended school segregation.
She praised the ruling but warned that segregation could return as different races band together in separate communities.
"Many districts in this country have actually pulled back on efforts to integrate their schools, and many communities have become less diverse as folks have moved from cities to suburbs," Obama told the students.
"So today, by some measures, our schools are as segregated as they were back when Dr. [Martin Luther] King gave his final speech. As a result, many young people in America are going to school largely with kids who look just like them."
Delay, a former Texas congressman, said there are some inner-city areas where "leftist organizations" have "completely destroyed'' the educational system.
He cited Detroit and Washington, D.C., as two examples.
"But mostly around the country race has no part being played in our educational system,'' DeLay said.
"They just want to keep that going because it just keeps people motivated to see their point of view, their world of view, and follow them right over the cliff.''
DeLay said nobody should be surprised by President Barack Obama's
decision to release 36,000 convicted murderers, rapists, and other felons back into society as they were awaiting deportation hearings.
"This president has chosen not to enforce immigration laws," DeLay said.
"He's now creating a sanctuary nation where illegal immigrants don't have to have any problem or have no problem in breaking the law because the law enforcement within those cities and now within the United States aren't going to arrest them, aren't going to detain them, and certainly are not going to deport them.
On the subject of immigration reform, DeLay said he does not see House Speaker John Boehner bringing the issue to a vote before the August break on Capitol Hill.
"His caucus is absolutely divided on this, not down the middle. I think the vast majority of his caucus doesn't want to do immigration right now," DeLay said.
"Why would you want to when you're looking at the possibility of having a good election taking over the U.S. Senate and be in a position where you have gained seats in the House and you've taken the majority in the Senate against Obama, who's an incredibly incompetent and weak president.
"Why would you want to do it now when you can do it next year and you can actually get something done? I know John Boehner and I just don't think that he would attempt this."
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