Appearing Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “America Reports,” the House Republican Conference Chair and top GOP Trump ally Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York argued that Harvard’s board is responsible for trying to cover up the plagiarism of former President Claudine Gay.
Speaking about the situation, Rep. Stefanik said that Congress is investigating the situation and that the Harvard board should have handled the plagiarism situation far, far faster, instead of waiting until backing former President Gay was entirely untenable because of her outrageous plagiarism.
Commenting on that, Stefanik said, “It should not have taken the Harvard Corporation board this long to demand her resignation. And I believe, as we continue our congressional investigation, that we will uncover what will be the greatest scandal in higher education, because the Harvard Corporation members themselves are complicit in this cover-up of her plagiarism, and again, most importantly, their failure to protect Jewish students on campus.”
Continuing, she argued that there would never have been even any accountability for former President Gay had Congress not intervened and dug into the situation, saying, “This accountability would not have happened were it not for that congressional hearing, and I think what it forced was greater scrutiny of her position as the President of Harvard.”
She then noted the peculiar circumstances surrounding President Gay being hired for the job, namely the short search and complete lack of investigating plagiarism allegations against her, saying, “And you have to remember, Gillian, she was selected as President of Harvard in a shorter search — executive search than any other previous President, and they should have found out that there were 50 credible allegations of plagiarism.”
That perspective was one that House Majority Whip Steve Scalise agreed with, tweeting, “It shouldn’t have taken this long. This accountability wouldn’t have happened without the strong questioning and leadership of my colleague and friend, Conference Chair @RepStefanik —a @Harvard grad herself.”
In any case, Rep. Stefanik then pointed out yet another way Harvard tried to dodge responsibility and accountability over former President Gay’s plagiarism, saying, “And the fact that the Harvard Corporation we now know knew about that before the congressional hearing and tried to cover it up and threaten media outlets to sue them is a disgrace.”
Watch Rep. Stefanik here:
In her resignation letter, President Gay said, in part, “Dear Members of the Harvard Community, It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president. This is not a decision I came to easily. Indeed, it has been difficult beyond words because I have looked forward to working with so many of you to advance the commitment to academic excellence that has propelled this great university across centuries. But, after consultation with members of the Corporation, it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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