President’s Remarks at Antisemitism Hearing Ripped by WH

White House aide Andrew Bates on Wednesday issued a scathing rebuke of comments made at an antisemitism hearing by the presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

“It’s unbelievable that this needs to be said: calls for genocide are monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country,” Bates said in a statement a day after the hearing. “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.”

Bates was referring to responses made by the university leaders when asked by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., if a call for the genocide of Jewish people would be considered harassment under their campus policies.

“We embrace a commitment to free expression and give a wide berth to free expression, even of views that are objectionable,” Harvard president Claudine Gay said during a testy exchange with Stefanik.

MIT’s president Sally Kornbluth said there would be an investigation as harassment “if pervasive.”

“If the speech becomes conduct, it can be harassment,” UPenn president Liz Magill said, with Stefanik firing back, “Conduct meaning committing the act of genocide?”

Harvard tried to backtrack Wednesday.

“There are some who have confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students,” Gay said in a statement. “Let me be clear: Calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.”