Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and other politicians are cheering the resignation of former University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill, who resigned following scathing congressional testimony about antisemitism on campus.
“One down. Two more,” said Stefanik, the House GOP conference chair who grilled Magill and the presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during a tense hearing last week.
“This is just the beginning of addressing the pervasive rot of antisemitism that has destroyed America’s most ‘prestigious’ institution of higher learning,” he added in a statement.
Magill announced his resignation Saturday, as did University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees Chairman Scott Bok.
It comes after Magill took heat for dodging a question about whether students who chanted in support of the genocide of Jews should be punished during a congressional hearing Tuesday.
Stefanik pressed Magill and other university presidents, Claudine Gay, of Harvard, and Sally Kornbluth, of MIT, about student chants, including for “intifada,” which he described as calls for “the genocide of the Jews.”
Elise Stefanik’s grilling of the university president last week quickly went viral. Getty Images
Magill later issued an apology and explained that the call for the genocide of the Jews was “evil, plain and simple.”
Other politicians on Sunday criticized Magill and his fellow campus leaders for their responses during the tumultuous hearing.
“Any college president in this country who cannot condemn antisemitism, cannot condemn the genocide of Jews, they need to resign or be fired,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told “Fox News Sunday.”
“It’s disgusting. It’s shameful, and it shouldn’t be happening on our college campuses.”
Elizabeth Magill later apologized for her misgivings but chose to resign. The Washington Post via Getty Images
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Ut.) insisted that he would not tell the remaining presidents what to do, but called their response during the congressional hearings a “remarkable failure.”
“What they did in the hearing was absolutely disgusting, outrageous, incomprehensible. It would violate the premise of American unity,” Romney told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who now heads Trump’s Media & Technology Group, also expressed his surprise at the hearing.
“Rarely do you have a congressional hearing that results in something happening so quickly,” Nunes told “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Mitt Romney called the president’s comments, ‘disgusting,’ ‘outrageous,’ and ‘incomprehensible.’ Getty Images
“I’ll give a lot of credit to the Republicans here that they’re actually exposing what’s really stupid for some of the most famously smart universities in the entire country,” he said.
“I am glad to know that he will resign,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) just wrote in X.
“UPenn fired its pathetic President & now faces a tougher choice: (1) Expand a speech code to add antisemitism to the list of views they already ban, OR (2) Embrace true freedom of speech & abandon censorship altogether. #2 would be awesome, but #1 is where they’ll probably land,” presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said.
UPenn fired its pathetic President & now faces tougher choices:
(1) Expand the speech code to add antisemitism to the list of viewpoints they already ban, OR
(2) Live true freedom of speech & leave censorship altogether.
#2 would be awesome, but #1 is where they’ll probably land.
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRAmaswamy) December 10, 2023
Magill’s resignation comes in the context of campus donors becoming outraged amid mounting backlash against her testimony.
During the exchange, Stefanik examined the Ivy Leagy institution’s policy on Jewish harassment on campus.
“Calling for the genocide of the Jews,” Stefanik asked during the hearing, “is that bullying or harassment?”
Vivek Ramaswamy called for campuses to adopt more consistent policies on free speech. AP
“If it’s directed and severe, pervasive, it’s a disorder,” Magill replied.
“It’s a context-dependent decision, congressman,” he added later.
“That’s your testimony today? Calls for the genocide of Jews depend on the context?” Stefanik replied.
After a hearing before the House Education and Workforce Committee to examine the prestigious institution’s policies toward combating antisemitism on campus, Stefanik demanded that all three presidents resign.
Even the White House seemed surprised by the hearing.
“It’s unbelievable that this has to be said: calls for genocide are terrible and against everything we stand for as a country,” Andrew Bates, senior White House communications adviser and deputy press secretary, said. said in a statement.
The GOP-led panel chaired by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) announced Thursday that she will launch a broader investigation into antisemitism on college campuses.
This comes amid antisemitic episodes on college campuses across the country that have skyrocketed since the October 7 surprise attack from Hamas.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
