Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said during an interview over the weekend that Harvard President Claudine Gay’s resignation from her position was “long overdue” following her testimony before Congress about anti-Semitism on her school’s campus.
Stefanik made the remarks during a Sunday interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press” with Kristen Welker while talking about Gay’s ouster following controversial remarks that she made during her testimony and the subsequent plagiarism allegations that she faced.
“It was long overdue. She should have resigned immediately following the hearing,” Stefanik said. “And, of course, this follows the resignation of Liz Magill, the Penn president, who also answered, almost verbatim, the same way that the Harvard former president did, as well. And so did the MIT president, I might add. And I’ve called for all three of their resignations. It’s not just me who called for the resignations. We passed a vote, bipartisan, who called for the resignation on the floor of Congress.”
Welker asked Stefanik to respond to Gay’s assertion that her ouster was part of a broader campaign “to unravel public faith in pillars of American society.”
Stefanik responded: “Well, I would respond that she failed to stand up for Jewish students on campus who have been facing antisemitic attacks, who have been facing physical assault. We’ve seen that footage. We’ve heard that directly from students on campus. We’ve also heard faculty concerns about her tenure, and her position, and her lack of academic integrity. But it really goes back to protecting Jewish students. And, frankly, when it comes to Harvard, the only time that Harvard has pled for academic freedom or freedom of speech was when it comes to the genocide of the Jewish people. That is inherently unfit for a person to be president of a university. It is part of a broader issue at these schools, which is why our investigation is so important. We’re going to look at DEI, which inherently has refused to bring up concerns from Jewish students of the rise of antisemitic attacks. We’re going to look at foreign funding as well as taxpayer funding and the governance of these universities. You saw that these boards doubled down to support these university professors despite the morally bankrupt testimony.”
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