Republican New York Rep. Elise Stefanik challenged CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin’s suggestion Wednesday that the freeze in federal funds for Harvard University over antisemitism is a violation of free speech.
President Donald Trump’s administration is set to freeze $2.2 billion in funds to the Ivy League university over its refusal to comply with a list of their demands, which include tackling antisemitism and eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Sorkin claimed on “Squawk Box” that the administration’s actions against Harvard is impeding on the university’s speech, prompting Stefanik to say that many elite universities are “not standing up for American values.”
READ: Trump Weighs Tariffs As Tool To Break China’s Stranglehold On ‘Critical Minerals’
“I want to push back on that, because this was a determinative issue in this last election cycle. People paid attention to higher ed and they’re very concerned that billions are going to these institutions and they’re not standing up for American values,” Stefanik said.
“Let me ask you about talking about American values. I think one of the things that’s made America great is a lot of the people who have come out of these universities, including Harvard, who have done amazing things in this country … I can go down the list of people who have managed their way in and out of Harvard, and by the way, taxpayers have effectively subsidized that and I think, by the way, is a great thing,” Sorkin replied.
In a letter to Harvard, the Department of Education said that the university must be determined to uphold federal civil rights law and encourage “intellectual creativity and scholarly rigor” in order to continue to receive federal funding. Refusing to comply with the demands, Harvard President Alan Garber said the university will “not surrender its independence” or “constitutional rights” in response to the letter.
Citing the letter, Stefanik said that the far-left ideology and antisemitism currently being pushed on students, along with the several academic integrity scandals, contradicts Harvard’s goal of academic excellence.
“The only times that these schools have testified when it comes to protecting your free speech, again, these schools are among the lowest when it comes to the protection of free speech,” Stefanik said. “I’ve experienced that myself when I was removed from a board of Harvard for giving a speech on behalf of my constituents on the House floor on election integrity issues and yet they want to stand up for free speech when it calls for the genocide of Jews. It is antisemitic at its core and they can’t say it with a straight face.”
Harvard faced intense scrutiny over the antisemitism that took place during the nationwide anti-Israel protests on campuses in April 2024. In a tense congressional exchange in December 2023, Stefanik could not get a clear answer out of then-Harvard President Claudine Gay, who later resigned from her position in early January 2024, on what actions she had taken to combat antisemitism on campus.
READ: Border Czar Tom Homan Skewers Outraged Dems Who Were Silent During Biden’s Border Crisis
Over 30 student organizations at Harvard signed a letter blaming Israel’s alleged “colonial occupation” for the barbarous Oct. 7, 2023, attack carried out by Hamas, which caused an uproar at the university.
“You don’t think that on some level the government is now in the business of trying to enforce something around speech?” Sorkin asked.
“No, it is about what the administration laid out. It is protecting Jewish students on campus, it is about protecting civil rights and they’re not doing that, so why should we be propping up over $9 billion over Harvard?” Stefanik said. “The president is absolutely correct to freeze those federal funds, Congress is correct and you know what’s interesting, Andrew? This is not just Republicans who believe this, there are a number of Democrats as well.”
The New York congresswoman said the Ivy League university is still failing to address antisemitism and hold the antisemites accountable for assaulting Jewish students on campus. Stefanik graduated with Honors from Harvard in 2006.
During a Tuesday segment of “Squawk Box,” co-host Joe Kernen told Sorkin that the political left only defends free speech when it suits their agenda, pointing to the suppression of the New York Post’s report on Hunter Biden’s laptop and former President Joe Biden’s administration’s communication with social media platforms to combat so-called “misinformation” on COVID.
Please make a small donation to the Tampa Free Press to help sustain independent journalism. Your contribution enables us to continue delivering high-quality, local, and national news coverage.
Connect with us: Follow the Tampa Free Press on Facebook and Twitter for breaking news and updates.
Sign up: Subscribe to our free newsletter for a curated selection of top stories delivered straight to your inbox.
First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
