Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum lost her patience during a Wednesday segment after American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten interrupted her and called her “sweetheart”—a remark that prompted immediate backlash and led Weingarten to backtrack and issue an apology.

Martha MacCallum welcomed Weingarten as a guest on The Story to discuss issues related to Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court involving parents seeking the right to opt their children out of LGBTQ-themed lessons in Maryland’s Montgomery County School District.

While Weingarten said she couldn’t comment directly on the case, she expressed willingness to discuss the broader issues it raises, The Daily Wire reported.

The Fox News anchor highlighted the consistently low test scores in the Montgomery County School District and questioned why schools seemed more focused on requiring books about pronouns than on making sure students were learning core subjects like reading, writing, and math.

“Look at this. I mean this — if this isn’t a failure that needs to be so much more important than whether or not you’re reading a book about your pronouns. This is the Maryland rankings,” MacCallum said. “Fourth graders, these same little kids who’ve had these books, you know, fed to them at a very young age, their reading ranked in 2013, they were second in the nation in Maryland. 2024, 20th. Math, 16th in the nation, plummeting down to 39th. So if I were a parent in this district, I would be saying, ‘Please, please leave these books out of the picture teach my child to read and to do math okay, and let’s focus on why we’re there.’”

Weingarten argued that test scores were rising in Massachusetts but declining in Florida, claiming this showed Florida’s anti-“woke” education model was ineffective and that increased funding was the key to improving schools.

But MacCallum pushed back, pointing to Newark, New Jersey, where per-student spending ranks among the highest in the nation, as evidence that more money doesn’t necessarily lead to better outcomes.

However, as MacCallum was trying to make her point, Weingarten attempted to shut her down: “Martha, Martha, sweetheart, sweetheart, listen to me —”

“Please don’t call me sweetheart,” MacCallum immediately objected, clearly fed up.

After repeating over and over that she's fighting for respect for women, awful union boss Randi Weingarten then sounds like an old 1970's Lou Grant calling Martha McCallum "sweetheart":pic.twitter.com/YgsD5JHDC1

— MARK SIMONE (@MarkSimoneNY) April 22, 2025

“I’m sorry — my bad,” Weingarten backpedaled, while continuing to claim that education problems could be fixed with more money.

MacCallum noted that the usage of the money in Mississippi was also significant. “Well, one of the things that they’ve done in Mississippi is to expand choice. They’re also doing something really important in Mississippi, which is to expand teacher training,” she said.