Kansas Democratic Party tweets deceptively edited video of Derek Schmidt comments on school funding

The Kansas Democratic Party tweeted a deceptively edited video of Republican gubernatorial candidate Derek Schmidt's comments on education funding.

The 12-second video consists of five loops of a Fox News clip where Schmidt asks, "What good does it do to fully fund schools?"

"In case anyone was wondering where @DerekSchmidtKS stand on funding our public schools, here it is," KDP tweeted Friday evening.

But that is not the full quote, which ended with "if you turn around and lock the children out of them."

The quote was a criticism of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly over school lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, a frequent talking point for Schmidt. At the Kansas State Fair debate, Schmidt expressed it as "fully funding schools can only work if you don't lock the kids out of them after they're fully funded."

Schmidt has vowed to fully fund schools, noting the Kansas Supreme Court mandate and his legal defense of the increased funding levels that ultimately were ruled constitutional. Democrats have long worked to tie Schmidt to unconstitutional underfunding of K-12 education during the years of former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, which he also defended in court.

Schmidt campaign spokesperson CJ Grover said the KDP tweet was "outright misinformation."

"It's what you do when you're flailing and desperate," Grover said.

“We tweeted a meme to point out the fact that Derek Schmidt accidentally said the one thing he doesn’t want Kansans to know: he defended huge cuts to our schools under Brownback," said Emma O'Brien, a KDP spokesperson. "It’s telling that Derek Schmidt’s campaign is panicking over a single tweet, highlighting once again his attempt to run from his own track record of keeping our schools underfunded.”

More:Laura Kelly calls herself the 'education governor.' Derek Schmidt says she broke promises to Kansas.