Several Republican politicians wasted no time in responding to Harvard University President Claudine Gay’s resignation on Tuesday.
Gay was accused of plagiarizing multiple academic works, and she was criticized after failing to say whether calls for genocide violate the university’s code of conduct during a Dec. 5 congressional hearing. Several prominent figures, including Republican New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, issued statements following her resignation. (RELATED: ‘Queering God’ And ‘How To Be A Bitch’: Here Are Just A Few Of The Craziest Courses Universities Offered In 2023)
“The resignation of Harvard’s antisemitic plagiarist president is long overdue. Gay’s morally bankrupt answers to my questions made history as the most viewed Congressional testimony in the history of the U.S. Congress. Her answers were absolutely pathetic and devoid of the moral leadership and academic integrity required of the president of Harvard,” Stefanik said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Stefanik asked the question during the House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing. Over 70 members of Congress wrote a letter calling for the removal of Gay, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth following their congressional testimony.
“I was one of 3 students appointed to the advisory board to select Harvard’s new President in 2007 after Larry Summers was forced to resign after his supposedly ‘misogynistic’ comments (which were badly distorted),” Ramaswamy posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Back then, it was a foreordained conclusion that the next President would be a woman, no questions asked – shut up, sit down, do as you’re told. And it was a thinly veiled exercise in race & gender when they selected Claudine Gay.”
Harvard’s President Claudine Gay just resigned…better late than never. Back in 2006, I was one of 3 students appointed to the advisory board to select Harvard’s new President in 2007 after Larry Summers was forced to resign after his supposedly “misogynistic” comments (which…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) January 2, 2024
“The serial plagiarism was bad enough. But pushing racist and Marxist ‘diversity’ policies while tolerating antisemitism on campus was even worse. Harvard should be ashamed and should do much, much better with its next choice for president,” Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton said in a tweet.
The serial plagiarism was bad enough.
But pushing racist and Marxist “diversity” policies while tolerating antisemitism on campus was even worse.
Harvard should be ashamed and should do much, much better with its next choice for president.
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) January 2, 2024
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce opened an investigation into the schools’ “learning environments, policies, and disciplinary procedures” following the hearing, and Magill resigned as UPenn president on Dec. 9.
“What the world saw from President Gay on December 5 was repeated equivocation – and no one has forgotten it since,” Republican North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx, chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said in a Tuesday press release. “Then there are allegations after allegations of plagiarism – this academically dishonest behavior is appalling. While President Gay’s resignation is welcome news, the problems at Harvard are much larger than one leader and the Committee’s oversight will continue.”
Gay cited “racial animus” as one of the reasons for her deciding to step down and did not apologize for her conduct in her resignation letter.
Harvard and Gay did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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