# How clean (or not) is Betsy De Vos ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 19, 2020, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-clean-or-not-is-betsy-de-vos/848164 "2020-02-19T09:47:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-clean-or-not-is-betsy-de-vos/848164/1 "2020-02-19T09:47:21Z")
We’ve seen no end of sleaze and outright blatant corruption from Trump and a number of his top Cabinet cronies, such as Barr, Pompeii, Mnuchin, Ross, Perry, etc. But Betsy De Vos? Her politics are atrocious; her educational attitudes are atavistic and barbaric; she is deeply in the pockets of Big Ed and she panders massively. But beyond the standard vanilla corruption and pandering, has she engaged in the kind of outright criminality like those others? For such an awful cabinet member (from the more liberal point-of-view of course), she seems not to be neck-deep in the kinds of scandals like the others. Aside from her politics, is she relatively honest (comparatively speaking)? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-clean-or-not-is-betsy-de-vos/848164/2 "2020-02-19T14:35:17Z")
She’s as dishonest as they come. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-clean-or-not-is-betsy-de-vos/848164/3 "2020-02-19T14:44:37Z")
She was held in contempt of court at the end of last year for violating a student loans order. > [@](#): > > U.S. Magistrate Sallie Kim today held DeVos in civil contempt of court and fined her $100,000 for violating an order to cease collecting student loan debt from students who attended Corinthian Colleges, a large for-profit college that closed on April 27, 2015. > **[Judge Holds Betsy DeVos In Contempt For Violating Student Loans Order](https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2019/10/24/betsy-devos-student-loans-contempt/#6973fc14756d)** > > U. S. Magistrate Sallie Kim today held DeVos in contempt of court and fined her $100,000 for violating an order to cease collecting student loan debt from students who attended Corinthian Colleges, a large for-profit college that closed on April 27,... She is definitely trying to make student debt forgiveness go away. > **[House Democrats overturn DeVos on student loan forgiveness, but change...](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/01/16/democrat-house-senate-student-loan-forgiveness-debt-betsy-devos/4489044002/)** > > The Democrat-controlled House overturned rules from Betsy DeVos on student loan forgiveness. Republicans in the Senate are unlikely to agree. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-clean-or-not-is-betsy-de-vos/848164/4 "2020-02-19T15:41:22Z")
DeVos is rich\* in her own right, so is less likely to be grafting than some of the other scum that trump surrounds himself with. She bought her job via family donations. She has a passion for injecting Christian dogma into primary education. The DeVos family money comes largely via the Amway scam her dad started, with her brother Erik Prince getting more rich off of the middle east quagmire via his Acadami/Xe/Blackwater mercenary operation, that is so upstanding it has to keep changing it’s name. Given that she is paying for her own private jet travel and security detail, the job is probably costing her money. And will probably cost her more as she fights the contempt charge over ignoring court orders to stop demanding students of fake colleges keep paying on their loans. \*Multiple homes, multiple yachts. private jets kinda rich, She is an actual billionaire, unlike her boss. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-clean-or-not-is-betsy-de-vos/848164/5 "2020-02-19T16:05:37Z")
Due to the ability politicians have to write laws, a certain level of bribery is legal. Politicians can accept money as long as everyone involved calls it campaign contributions or charitable donations or employment offers or product purchases. As far as I know, De Vos has stayed inside the legal limits. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-clean-or-not-is-betsy-de-vos/848164/6 "2020-02-19T16:18:06Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > DeVos is rich\* in her own right, so is less likely to be grafting than some of the other scum that trump surrounds himself with. I do not think that follows at all. How do you think she (her family) got rich in the first place? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-clean-or-not-is-betsy-de-vos/848164/7 "2020-02-19T17:06:51Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > The DeVos family money comes largely via the Amway scam her dad started, with her brother Erik Prince getting more rich off of the middle east quagmire via his Acadami/Xe/Blackwater mercenary operation, that is so upstanding it has to keep changing it’s name. Wait… there’s a lot that’s not accurate in that paragraph. Betsy DeVos née Prince is indeed Erik Prince’s sister. Her father (and Erik’s) was Edgar Prince, who founded Prince Corporation, a die-cast manufacturing company. He died in 1995 and Erik ran the company for a short time before their mother, Elsa, sold the company to Johnson Controls for $1.35B in 1996 or 1997. Betsy married Dick DeVos; it was his father Richard that co-founded Amway. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-clean-or-not-is-betsy-de-vos/848164/8 "2020-02-19T18:19:21Z")
I see her as a bog standard rich Republican. She’s not corrupt per se, just pushing her agenda to try to influence the government in ways that would make her richer. Now, what I perceive as her agenda is not something I agree with, and would like to see her ilk deeply marginalized in serious discussions about education policy, but I don’t think she has it in her to really flout the law, ala the current occupant. Her contempt of court? Well, that’s just political, donchaknow. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2020, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-clean-or-not-is-betsy-de-vos/848164/9 "2020-02-20T02:55:18Z")
What was that line from “Silver City”? “Not so much corrupt as ‘user friendly’”. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2020, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-clean-or-not-is-betsy-de-vos/848164/10 "2020-02-20T09:17:04Z")
BTW, there’s a thread in the Pit on substantially the same subject, [Is Betsy DeVos a criminal?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=890297) started by **septimus** just a couple of hours after this one. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2020, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-clean-or-not-is-betsy-de-vos/848164/11 "2020-02-20T11:03:07Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > I see her as a bog standard rich Republican. She’s not corrupt per se, just pushing her agenda to try to influence the government in ways that would make her richer. In what way is corruption not the republican bog standard? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-clean-or-not-is-betsy-de-vos/848164/12 "2020-02-21T03:12:19Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > In what way is corruption not the republican bog standard? Seems like there’s bog standard Republican corruption, and then there’s Trump 'n Friends corruption which goes orders of magnitude beyond _mere_ bog standard Repub corruption. De Vos, ISTM, is a few levels beyond bog standard, but not (at least, not real obviously) in the same league with the rest of them. In that sense, she almost stands out like a sore thumb. Not that I’m defending her, y’all understand. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-clean-or-not-is-betsy-de-vos/848164/13 "2020-02-21T03:19:33Z")
I don’t know, I think DeVos goes a bit beyond the usual Republican depraved indifference to the rule of law. But then I said the same thing about Dick Cheney, so maybe not.