Saratoga, N.Y. - In case you missed it, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik joined Fox News' Life, Liberty and Levin on antisemitism in higher education and pro-terrorist rioters at Columbia University.
View part one of the interview here and part two here.
View highlights from the interview below.
On This Week's Hearing on Antisemitism:
“Well, we learned we had three university presidents from Haverford, from DePaul, from Cal Poly, and I couldn't even get beyond have heard President, because her answers were so atrocious. And I'll tell you, Mark you talk about those hearings, I actually didn't prepare the questions that I asked, but her answers were so abysmal that I just did follow up after follow up. So in the case of Haverford, there have been light on many of these colleges and universities across the country, a skyrocketing of anti semitism on campus, and my focus was on their lack of disciplinary action. And again, she withered under the direct question, Has any disciplinary action been taken against the anti semitic professors, against the pro Hamas agitators that are harassing Jewish students? And question after question, she refused to answer yes or no. And what was also interesting mark is we had a photograph that was taken at her talking points. And the talking points weren't zero tolerance for anti semitism. Here's the disciplinary action. The talking points were so embarrassing that she worked on it was a clacker that said, think, look at placemat show, feeling, emotion. It's absurd. It's laughable that that's what these university presidents are relying on. We need strength and leadership, just like President Trump is showing in the Oval Office."
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I tend to find that what Democrats accuse others are, and I would not use that rhetoric because it's so absurd, but they have refused to tackle this issue themselves. Not that long ago, we had Joe Biden as President of the United States, regardless of who was using the auto pin or not, we saw a fundamental lack of leadership from the Oval Office in holding these universities accountable. Talk about a shift with President Trump in office. We're working hand in glove in ensuring these universities don't feel entitled to US taxpayer dollars because they're not law. If they're not protecting the civil rights of Jewish students on campus, they're not entitled to those dollars. In addition, we are increasing the accountability for foreign dollars flowing into US universities. And you nailed it on the head. There are foreign dollars who are propping up these pro Hamas agitators and encampments. There are foreign dollars flowing in from communist China that are funding Confucius Institutes. We are taking action after action to hold them accountable. But make no mistake, the earthquake hearing that happened with Harvard, MIT and Penn presidents, two of which are now former presidents, that set off an earthquake. And I will tell you, this did not just happen in the last two years. This is decades of intellectual and academic decay in our once great higher ed institutions. We need to get back to academic excellence. Rather than training this next generation of far left radical agitators, we need to focus on engineering, math, science, the classics, and instead they are training not the next generation of leaders, but the next generation of Marxists."
On Democrats' Response to Antisemitism on College Campuses:
"Whether it's Chuck Schumer who failed to call for the resignation of multiple university presidents, including his alma mater, which we share at Harvard, he was he refused to call for the resignation of the previous president. He has refused to hold Columbia accountable in our home state of New York, and Republicans are the ones that are stepping up when it comes to standing up for American values and protecting American students on campus. And just this past week mark, when you saw at Columbia, the pro Hamas, violent agitators take over the library as students were studying for finals, it was Republicans who stood up, who spoke out and said, this cannot happen, and they need to be held accountable. And it took the Columbia administrators and the acting Columbia President time to allow the NYPD to call in, call them into the library. It shouldn't have taken that long for that to happen. I want to thank the law enforcement officers for bringing rule of law and law and order, but it should not have gotten to this point already. So no Democrats have not stepped up. This is electorally, why you're seeing significant shifts in the electorate who feel that Democrats rightfully they understand the truth that Democrats have failed to focus on American excellence when it comes to academic institutions."
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