‘Little House on the Prairie’ Star Melissa Gilbert Says ‘Moron’ Betsy DeVos ‘Needs to Be Removed’

Actress Melissa Gilbert prefers to leave nothing to the imagination when it comes to her feelings about U.S. Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos.

On her way out of the NBC Studios in New York on Wednesday, TMZ cameras caught up to Gilbert and asked for her thoughts on DeVos. What followed, was a rant featuring words such as “moron,” and demands that DeVos be “removed.”

Little House on the Prairie star’s claim that DeVos doesn’t know what’s going on in “her own state,’ stems from a 60 Minutes interview which aired last Sunday with Leslie Stahl. In the interview, Stahl asked DeVos for examples of places where her education reforms had worked. When Stahl specifically asked about DeVos’ home state of Michigan, the education secretary said, “I don’t know.”

This response brought forth a surge of mockery from late-night hosts such as Stephen Colbert. DeVos is the education secretary for the entire country and charged with keeping a big picture perspective of educational reforms across all 50 states, not just Michigan.

While these less than charitable comments could have been made by any Hollywood figure, Gilbert is quite familiar with the political scene.

According to the Detroit Free Press, “In 2015, Gilbert announced she was running for Congress as a Democrat in Michigan’s 8th District. She later dropped out of the race, citing health ailments and advice from her doctors.”

Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn