Washington, D.C. - In case you missed it, House Republican Leadership Chairwoman Elise Stefanik joined Squawk Box on CNBC.
View highlights from the interview below.
On President Trump Withholding Funds from Harvard for Antisemitism:
“These schools are not entitled to U.S. taxpayer dollars if they're not living up to the standards and not protecting civil rights of Jewish students on campus, and let's take a step back to what has led to this earthquake within higher education. After October 7th, we saw skyrocketing of antisemitism on college campuses, particularly our known most “elite” college campuses. Whether it was Harvard or Columbia, you saw physical assaults against Jewish students. You saw take overs of classrooms. You saw riots of property at school–destruction, and then you didn't see enforcement of these universities against those who violated the rules, violated the standards of the university. These schools get billions of dollars, of U.S. taxpayer funds. We have a responsibility to be good stewards, to make sure they are protecting Jewish students, and they've abjectly failed. Harvard has been the epitome of this failure. They didn't enforce the rules. They gave the diplomas to those that committed these antisemitic crimes against fellow students. I mean, we're talking about physical assaults. And the other issue is these schools rank among the lowest when it comes to protections of free speech. They only want to protect free speech when it comes to calling for the genocide of Jews. When you saw very famously in that committee hearing, which, by the way, is the most viewed committee hearing in the history of the United States Congress, when three university presidents failed to condemn calls for the genocide of Jews.”
On Harvard’s Long History of Antisemitism:
“If you look at what the Department of Education has laid out to both Harvard and Columbia, it is not about speech. It is specifically about elimination of DEI, which, in its basis, specifically at Harvard, is antisemitic. There are countless examples. I brought this up in one of the congressional hearings that the Office of DEI at Harvard refused to respond to Jewish students. This is prior to October 7th when there was a concern of the rise of antisemitism, in addition a mask ban, where so many of these rioters and, frankly, criminals are hiding behind these masks, and it doesn't allow the university to actually enforce the rules. The time and place, not allowing them to take over buildings. And the reality is, the only way to get these institutions to respond is to withhold those U.S. taxpayer dollars. They are not entitled. I mean, as a Representative in the United States Congress, I represent nearly a million people who are working hard when it comes to paying their taxes, and they don't want their taxes to go to prop up these universities. If these universities choose not to take taxpayer dollars and want to continue going down that road, that is their choice.”
On the Lack of American Values in Higher Ed:
“If you look at the ideological diversity, there is nearly zero ideological diversity at Harvard. And my own experience, listen, Harvard does not protect free speech. I was removed from a board at Harvard because of a speech that I gave on the House floor, and they decided to do their opinion. They didn't like it. They didn't like the fact that I am a proud Harvard graduate. It wasn't like that when I was there. So for them to say, on one hand, they're protecting free speech, they don't have a history of doing so.
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We want viewpoint diversity. The problem in higher education particularly at Harvard and Columbia and some of these sorts of elite schools, is you have 97% ideologically far left progressives, and that has fueled this deeply out of touch–and it also suppresses viewpoint diversity of students. What was interesting to me is, Harvard, the response from self-identified conservative students, or maybe students that don't know and are there to learn and want to hear different viewpoints, they feel suppressed that they are not are not able to speak up in classrooms.
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This was a determinative issue in this last election cycle. People paid attention to higher ed, and they're very concerned that billions are going to these institutions, and they're not standing up for American values.
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If you look at the letter from the Trump Administration to Harvard, in the first line, it talks about academic excellence and scholarly pursuits. What these schools have pursued in sort of this race to far left, this propping up of antisemitism is the opposite of that. So those examples are prime examples. But again, we need to make sure that the schools are focused on that and being good stewards of U.S. taxpayer dollars, and not propping up this ideological bias and, frankly, this antisemitism that has put students at risk. And you made the point people are voting with their feet. Look at the matriculation rates.”
