Legal expert calls for Smithsonian leadership overhaul over ‘self-loathing’ portrayal of history: ‘It’s bile’

A legal expert is calling for a leadership overhaul at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH), arguing the museum has embraced a negative, "self-loathing" portrayal of the nation’s past.

"I think this is part of a broader effort by radicals on the left to redefine the history of the United States and reframe it in an oppressor-versus-oppressed narrative," Cully Stimson, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former assistant U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital.

"Instead of looking at American history chronologically with all the triumphs and tragedies, including slavery, and then the things that our country did to eradicate the vestiges of slavery, and then passing the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments and the Civil Rights Acts and getting rid of various other laws that were discriminatory in practice or in spirit.

They take a very pro-reparations, ‘we’re a bad country,’ oppressor-versus-oppressed narrative." The comments come after a July 2026 White House report accused the Smithsonian of advancing DEI and left-wing agendas, prompting a pair of heated congressional hearings that put National Museum of American History Director Anthea Hartig under the national spotlight.

DESCENDANT OF SLAVES SHAMES SMITHSONIAN’S WOKE ‘INDOCTRINATION’ AGAINST THE ‘GREATEST NATION ON EARTH’ Lawmakers accused museum leaders of allowing political activism to seep into exhibits and influence how history is presented, while Hartig maintained that the museum is nonpartisan and "does not take sides in America’s political debates." Stimson said the hearings are exposing "bile that they’re trying to pass off as history," saying "sunlight’s a good disinfectant." "If the head of the Smithsonian had any shame whatsoever, she would have resigned in disgrace already and she doesn’t have any shame because she’s perfectly happy with what she’s done," Stimson said.

"She’s just the pointy end of the radical spear that’s out there trying to force this thing down the throats of Americans." Stimson said Hartig should have been fired "the minute after the hearing" for what he called "smug and self-righteous" behavior during her testimony and for failing to take accountability.

"Her little writing the question down and her smugness was really evincing of what she really thinks of the American people and congressional oversight," he said.

REP GILL CHALLENGES 'GENUINELY INSANE AND OBJECTIVELY OFFENSIVE' DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS AFTER VIRAL HEARING Looking back to America's 250th anniversary celebrations in July, when hundreds of thousands of people came to D.C. to celebrate the milestone, Stimson said families and children were instead greeted with "all sorts of disgusting things, bondage, and all sorts of other nasty things" at the museum.