Harold Hutchison
A White House spokesman blasted the presidents of three elite universities over their response to antisemitism on campus Wednesday.
The presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology testified before the House Education Committee Tuesday in a hearing on “Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism.” The university presidents dodged questions on whether they would hold students and applicants accountable for antisemitic speech.
“It’s unbelievable that this needs to be said: calls for genocide are monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement, according to NBC News. “Any statements that advocate for the systematic murder of Jews are dangerous and revolting — and we should all stand firmly against them, on the side of human dignity and the most basic values that unite us as Americans.”
WH spokesperson Andrew Bates responds to this hearing yesterday:
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) December 6, 2023
"It’s unbelievable that this needs to be said: calls for genocide are monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country." https://t.co/JlDmNLYuJW pic.twitter.com/x3lnl4DqUk
The presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania later backtracked in statements posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“President Biden has demonstrated moral clarity during this appalling rise in Antisemitism, when it’s more critical than ever to lead by example,” Bates said in the statement, according to NBC News.
President Joe Biden has come under fire from young voters over his support of Israel since the Oct. 7 attack. Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and other left-wing members of the House of Representatives known as “The Squad” released statements calling for a ceasefire almost immediately after Israel began its response to the attack.
Over a hundred Democrats in the House of Representatives either voted “no,” “present” or did not vote on a resolution condemning antisemitism, which was introduced by Republican Reps. David Kustoff of Tennessee and Max Miller of Ohio, according to the Clerk of the House of Representatives.
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