Just kidding: Tennessee lawmaker says his call to eliminate higher education was a joke

A Tennessee lawmaker said he was only kidding when he suggested getting rid of higher education would cut off "the liberal breeding ground."

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State Sen. Kerry Roberts, R-Springfield, was talking about an abortion measure on his weekly radio talk show on Sept. 2 when he called out a woman he said "goes off" on white lawmakers, NBC News reported.

The woman said "we've never done anything for black people," Roberts said on WDBL. He said the woman accused lawmakers of being "just hate-filled idiots."

"If there's one thing that we can do to save America today, it's to get rid of our institutions of higher education right now and cut the liberal breeding ground off! Good grief!" Roberts said.

In a Facebook post Monday night, Roberts said the statement was not meant to be taken literally, The Tennessean reported,

"A week ago, I went on a rant on 'The Kerry Roberts Show' calling out higher education as a liberal breeding ground and calling for its elimination," the Facebook post reads. "My listeners clearly understood the humor and hyperbole of it."

Roberts issued a statement Tuesday saying his comments were "clearly hyperbole," The Tennessean reported.

According to his Senate biography, Roberts, 57, earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Lipscomb University in 1983.

This year, Roberts co-sponsored a bill for a plan to foster "strategic future development of public universities, community colleges and colleges of applied technology," NBC News reported.

Roberts is not backing down from his criticism of liberal arts and higher education.

"Many higher education institutions have unquestionably become liberal breeding grounds where radical values and hatred for America are fomented," Roberts said in a statement Tuesday.

"It’s time for conservatives -- whose taxpayer dollars significantly fund these institutions of higher education -- to rise up and demand the restoration of balance in our halls of higher education. Do we literally need to abolish higher education in America? Of course not. There are institutions that have found balance and they are to be applauded. But it’s time for lawmakers to question the efficacy of higher education in America, meaningless majors, liberal bias, and intolerance of traditional values and conservative points of view.”

Cox Media Group