Elise Stefanik says she was left 'shaken' by university presidents' 'pathetic' answers about antisemitism
Rep. Elise Stefanik joined "Faulkner Focus" Wednesday to call out university presidents for their refusal to state that calling for genocide against Jews would violate their universities' codes of conduct. Stefanik, R-N.Y., said she was "shaken" by the lack of moral clarity and said the presidents of Harvard, Penn and M.I.T deserve to be fired.
ELISE STEFANIK: I've been in a number of very high-profile congressional hearings over the years and the pathetic moral depravity on display by the witnesses, the three university presidents from Harvard, M.I.T and Penn. I've never witnessed anything like that. And I asked the question in such a way that it was easy. Yes, that calling for the genocide of Jews, in fact, does violate their policies and code of conduct when it comes to bullying and harassment. And their answers were pathetic. I was so shaken and what was probably the most tragic aspect of the hearing to me was there were a number of Jewish students from those schools in the audience sitting behind them. And to watch just the fear as they're listening to the presidents of these universities fail to answer a basic question of moral clarity. It was abysmal. They don't deserve the dignity of resigning. They need to be fired.
Stefanik laced into Harvard University President Dr. Claudine Gay during a House committee hearing on the rise of antisemitism on college campuses on Tuesday, challenging that the Ivy League school's leader answer "Harvard student calling for the mass murder of African-Americans is not protected free speech at Harvard, correct?"
Stefanik demanded that Gay respond to the "yes or no question," before asking the Harvard president if she was familiar with the term "intifada" and cited multiple instances of Harvard students chanting, "There is only one solution. Intifada, Revolution," and "globalize the intifada" since Hamas' October 7 massacre and Israel's counteroffensive in Gaza that followed.
While Gay admitted that speech calling for intifada, and therefore genocide against the Jewish people in Israel and globally, was "at odds with the values of Harvard," but deflected when pressed by Stefanik if those sorts of remarks were against Harvard University's code of conduct.
Gay has since released a statement through the university, saying that "calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account."
Fox News' Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.