Tipsheet

NYT: The GOP Didn’t Understand the Language of Academia When Grilling Pro-Genocide College Heads

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  December 07, 2023 9:05 AM

US House Committee hearings are dull unless there’s a topic, like the weaponization of the FBI, where fireworks will start popping off from Matt Gaetz and others. The House Committee on Education hearing was somewhat low-key but riddled with appalling moments, like when three college heads from MIT, Harvard and UPenn endorsed Jewish genocide. They were asked point blank by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) if such harassment violated their respective campuses' codes of conduct, among other things. All three gave academic answers, essentially saying that context is everything. In other words, they don’t condemn those calling for the mass slaughter of Jews, opting to protect the pro-terrorist cohorts, some of whom hail from hubs of radical Islam.  

The Left doesn’t care about the harassment of Jewish students but will move like hell on wheels to protect those against perceived Islamophobia. Have you seen what these Hamas animals did to Israel on October 7 or here on 9/11? There’s much to fear from radical Islam. The position on antisemitism and being against genocide against Jews shouldn’t be difficult. Still, The New York Times decided to phrase the encounter as a ‘GOP pounced’ moment, which isn’t shocking (via NYT): 


Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and M.I.T. were hammered on Tuesday by Republican House members who claimed that the universities themselves had sown seeds of bias on campus against Jews. 

“The antisemitism that we’ve seen on your campuses didn’t come out of nowhere,” said Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina and chair of a House committee that invited the universities’ presidents to testify at a hearing about antisemitism on campus. 

Claudine Gay of Harvard, Sally Kornbluth of M.I.T. and Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania had come prepared for the hearing with speeches about the mundane details of university governance during a crisis. They testified that as the protests over the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks grew ugly, with clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel students, the police were called. Codes of conduct were consulted. Jewish students were asked about their fears. Task forces on antisemitism were formed. Freedom of expression was defended.

“Any form of hate is very contrary to our values,” Ms. Magill said. 

But the Republican members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce seemed to have little interest in speaking in the language of academia. They yoked rising antisemitism on college campuses to other hot-button issues that have helped animate G.O.P. politics for the last several years.


What an opening to this piece—how dare we discuss people wanting to kill Jews that isn’t within the lexicon of liberal snobbery. The Times’ pivot says it all: these three college heads got rolled, embarrassed, and exposed for enabling vile antisemitic abuse to spread like COVID through their campuses. That a major publication would carry water for a gross underbelly of the Democratic Party base shows you how their influence has grown, especially in the newsrooms.  

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Sadly, no one on the Left can come out and outright say that calls for a Jewish genocide are wrong on campus. And no, this isn’t an academic exercise. 

Last Note: The community note on this is perfect:

In case it goes away on Twitter, it reads:

At a Congressional hearing yesterday, President Gray refused to say whether calling for Jewish genocide is against the university code of conduct.