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Smithsonian National Museum of American History Director Anthea Hartig faced her first public congressional grilling Tuesday, testifying before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency over allegations that the museum has become a vehicle for ideological activism.
The hearing, titled "Rewriting American History: Examining the Smithsonian's Efforts to Reshape the Past," followed a White House report published July 4 accusing the museum of promoting "Anti-White Activism," "Illegal Alien Activism" and "Transgender Activism," among other claims of "ideological capture." Republican lawmakers used the hearing to press Hartig on the museum's content, while Democrats pushed back on the premise of the hearing itself.
Here are five highlights from Tuesday's eventful hearing.
1. Nancy Mace accuses US History Museum of pushing ‘indoctrination’
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., pressed Hartig with a series of yes-or-no questions, growing visibly frustrated when the museum director offered longer answers. Hartig answered "Absolutely" when Mace asked whether "educating children about American history is a core duty of the museum."
The exchange grew sharper when Mace asked whether "images of sexual fetishes" and "provocative sexual imagery" were appropriate for children. Hartig responded that the museum "strives to represent all Americans." Mace cut her off, insisting that she strives to "represent queer pedophiles, indoctrination, grooming of kids at an American history museum, and it sounds like you're proud of it."
“You won’t answer the questions, probably because you’re ashamed,” added Mace, who displayed images from the museum behind her, including one she described as depicting BDSM imagery and others showing performers in what she identified as drag. "You won't answer the questions, probably because you're ashamed," she told Hartig.
Much of the exchange centered on the museum's "Girlhood (It's Complicated)" exhibit. Mace cited a diary entry, which a White House report on the museum attributed to a 6-year-old, describing how "everybody was talking about getting boobs and their period; I pray to God every night for my penis to grow." Hartig disputed that characterization, telling Mace the diary entry actually belonged to a 13-year-old and that the exhibit, which ran from 2020 to 2023, carried a content warning making clear it "was not designed for children."
Mace added, “This kind of thing, when you are dressing men up as women, drag queens, you’re putting this kind of crap in front of kids, sexualizes them and makes them more vulnerable to people that want to rape them or abuse them.”
Hartig also declined to answer when Mace asked her to define the word "woman" or say whether men can become women. Mace went on to cite other material from the exhibit's glossary, including a passage stating that "other countries recognize three or more genders" and that "sometimes, gender isn't revealed at birth." She responded sarcastically: "So when is gender revealed? When was your gender revealed to you?"
2. Brandon Gill asks museum director ‘Is Mickey Mouse racist?’
Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, focused much of his questioning on the museum's "MASS Action Toolkit," which he said references "objectivity" as "a defining characteristic of white supremacy culture." Hartig disputed that the museum created the toolkit, telling Gill it had been used as a reference beginning around 2019 or 2020.
"Is Mickey Mouse racist?" Gill asked. "Mickey Mouse is not racist," Hartig replied. Gill then cited a museum exhibit characterizing Mickey Mouse as representing "vestiges of longstanding traditions of blackface minstrelsy," pressing her to explain the discrepancy.
When Hartig began discussing the "historical trajectory" and "origins" of the cartoon character, Gill asked whether her testimony was that "Mickey Mouse is rooted in racism." She said the character is "rooted in minstrelsy" instead, prompting Gill to ask, "You don't think that blackface minstrelsy is racist?"
“It had certain and obvious racial undertones that have been well documented,” she said. Gill asked if Hartig thought it was “problematic that Mickey Mouse also has those racial overtones,” to which she replied: “It’s not for me to determine what’s problematic” but rather “what’s accurate.”
Gill also asked Hartig whether it was "important to be polite," which she affirmed. He then noted that the same MASS Action Toolkit characterizes "politeness" as "a defining characteristic of white supremacy culture," and asked whether that made her a "white supremacist." Hartig said no, and told Gill she couldn't recall which part of the toolkit he was referencing.
3. Jasmine Crockett denounces hearing as ‘white pride rally’
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, opened her questioning by telling the panel, "Welcome to the Republicans' white pride rally disguised as a congressional hearing."
"It might be uncomfortable for some people on this committee to hear about the true history of America, and I hate that for them, but facts are facts, and it's a fact that there is a violent, exclusionary, discriminatory, sexist and racist part of American history," Crockett argued.
"So attacks on the Smithsonian or any other institution that's willing to tell the true history of America is not only an attempt to rewrite history, but it's an attempt to erase history," she said.
Citing unverified stats, Crockett also asked Hartig about the museum's workforce demographics, asking her if she only hired “non-white people,” claiming that “almost 60 percent of the Smithsonian’s total workforce is men and more than 50 percent is white. Ninety percent of Smithsonian employees making senior-level pay are white, and 60 percent of them are men.”
Crockett then claimed that her Republican colleagues' complaints were nothing more than a “fetish that these white guys with fragile egos have with trying to feel oppressed.”
She also confronted one of the witnesses at the hearing, Yale professor David Blight, asking him why most of the world was “rooting against” Argentina and for Spain in the final match of the World Cup. “Spain had the best team, maybe that’s why they were rooting for them,” he replied.
Crockett sarcastically laughed at his answer. “There’s also a racist history ... as it relates to Argentina,” she insisted.
4. Maxwell Frost, Ayaana Pressley compare Trump admin. to Nazi Germany
Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., closed his questioning by raising concerns about censorship, drawing a comparison to how "Nazi Germany weaponized art and museums to demonize certain groups." He asked Blight: "If Congress or the White House starts deciding historical interpretation, how is that different from political censorship?"
"It is political censorship," Blight replied. "Their model may indeed be Joseph Goebbels' Committee on Enlightenment, which is what the Nazis called their committee that tried to control the museums."
At another point in the hearing, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., invoked a similar historical parallel, describing how "as the Nazi regime consolidated political power, it turned its attentions to museums and to galleries."
According to Pressley, “The regime started with criticism labeling art as degenerate and claiming it didn’t fit with the national culture, but then they started attacking museum directors and curators and eventually art pieces were confiscated from museums and locked away or sold. In 1939, Nazis publicly burned thousands of paintings that they couldn’t profit from.”
Frost opened his questioning by accusing his Republican colleagues of "reading talking points from the White House," and argued the administration believes "the Smithsonian's goals should be consistent with the [Trump] administration's cultural and political goals."
5. Ayanna Pressley claims Trump ‘synonymous with fascism,’ afraid of ‘a black planet’
The harsh rhetoric directed at the Trump administration by Ayanna Pressley was not limited to invoking comparisons to Nazi Germany. “Since taking office, the Trump administration has become synonymous with fascism,” she added. Pressley pressed Blight to address “the fascist hostility to our history, academia, museums and the arts,” specifically asking “Why do fascists and autocrats attack cultural institutions like museums?”
After likening the Trump administration to Nazi Germany and calling it fascist, Pressley lamented that “Today, the occupant of the White House labels entire parts of American history as ‘divisive’ and uses the power of his office to pressure the Smithsonian to remove, whitewash and to rewrite our stories.” Pressley asked a rhetorical question pondering “What is spurring this all on?”
Answering her own question, Pressley identified the “fear of a black planet” as one of the reasons for the Trump administration’s actions along with “fear of a multiracial democracy.” She named “the occupant of the Oval Office, Project 2025” as well as “this cult of MAGA” as “fueled by fear and hate.”
“Donald Trump is working overtime to turn our museums into instruments of MAGA propaganda rather than places where American people and visitors from around the world can encounter our factual history,” she warned. Echoing the rhetoric of some of her other Democratic colleagues at the hearing, Pressley remarked “Try as you might to erase black history and to erase black people, you cannot erase us.”
