A congressional investigation has been launched into public and private universities that may be defending and fostering antisemitism.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) told Todd that she was moved to act when three university presidents refused to say that calling for the genocide of Jews was a violation of their code of conduct.
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The presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and MIT stirred national outrage among Republicans and Democrats when they all but defended raging antisemitism on their campuses.
“I was shocked by the tone-deafness of those comments. And I think they got bad legal advice in putting together what they were going to say,” former Vice President Al Gore (D-TN) told CNN.
All three universities are facing financial boycotts from donors and there are calls to have all three presidents removed from office.
JUST IN: Rep. @virginiafoxx tells me she is launching an investigation into antisemitism in higher education.
— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) December 11, 2023
"This is not going to be just a one shot deal," she said. "We're going to continue to reveal what's wrong and to hold these schools accountable. This is the most…
Liz Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned over the weekend.
Foxx says her investigation will be expansive and not just limited to the Ivy League.
“This is not going to be just a one shot deal,” she said. “We’re going to continue to reveal what’s wrong and to hold these schools accountable. This is the most effective method. The committee has to hold colleges accountable.”
And that includes removing tax dollars.
“That could include pulling federal funding,” she told Todd. “No federal funds should flow to colleges that fail to protect students.”
Following, is a full transcript of Todd’s interview with Rep. Foxx. You can also listen to the interview below and click here to get Todd’s daily newsletter – for news and information that is routinely censored on social media platforms. Stay informed!
TODD: Great to have the great congresswoman from North Carolina’s fifth Congressional District, Virginia Foxx with us. Virginia, good to have you on the program today.
REP. FOXX: [01:28:48] Well, thank you very much, Todd. I need to take you around so you can introduce me everywhere I go.
TODD: [01:28:53] Well, you’re tied to say that I. I have to I have to say how how excited I am to see that that you guys are launching this formal investigation into what’s happening at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania and M.I.T. Were you surprised at the reaction nationally to what we learned from these university presidents a few days ago?
REP. FOXX: [01:29:17] We have been a little surprised at how strong the reaction has been, but very pleased because of what has been going on on the campuses. And then to see these presidents not being able to give a straight answer on whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated their codes of conduct, they obviously should have said yes. And I’m pleased that this has gotten so much press and that people have responded. We are getting calls and letters from people I don’t even know. You know, there’s a song about that. But the testimony confirmed what we already knew, that college administrators have largely stood by at these anti-Semitic and hateful protests, have engulfed our campuses and Todd – the average person understands this is wrong. Why university administrators don’t understand it and why students, non-Jewish students and others don’t understand how horrible this is.
TODD: [01:30:24] Well, and it’s not just you know, this is yes, we’ve been focusing on Jewish students since October 7th, but this is the same type of behavior that’s been directed at Christian students, at conservative students on these university campuses.
REP. FOXX: [01:30:39] Absolutely. And we have talked about that before. And by the way, our first freedom is freedom of religion. That’s what the Constitution talks about. That’s what’s so important. And these people are being threatened because of their religion. And for Israeli students who are here studying for their country of origin, and that’s just absolutely wrong.
TODD: [01:31:17] So let’s talk about this investigation. What are you what are you guys going to be looking for?
REP. FOXX: [01:31:24] Well, it’ll be wide ranging and it won’t just be Harvard, UPENN and M.I.T.. We want to do this for a lot of campuses. We’re putting people on notice that that’s what we’re going to be doing. We’re going to send out detailed letters requesting a host of documents related to institutions, policies and procedures. And that’ll help inform the next steps of the investigation. This is not going to be just a one shot deal. We’re going to continue to reveal what’s wrong and to hold these schools accountable. This is the most effective method. The committee has to hold colleges accountable. You know, I’ve been calling attention to what’s rotten in the colleges and universities most of my life, certainly since I’ve been in Congress. And it’s terribly unfortunate that it took October 7th to call these people out, because I’ve been talking about it, as I said. You know, I’m a former college president. I’m a former university administrator. And I’ve always believed in the greatness of education and what education can do to help people get out of poverty, to advance in their lives through learning more skills. But our education system is just not doing that these days. And we are giving them trillions of dollars for from hardworking taxpayers, the majority of whom have never gone to college. So it’s time for us to hold them accountable for all the money they’re getting and the the opposition to what has made our country great. There’s no moral leadership on these campuses. They’re not teaching about the freedoms that we have and the great country we have based on our Constitution and the people who sacrificed so much who’ve come before us.
TODD: [01:33:37] We’ve got about 45 seconds here. So let’s say investigation is complete and you realize you’ve got you had the evidence. What can be done? Are we talking about defunding these universities? What what’s the consequence?
REP. FOXX: [01:33:50] Absolutely. If we find that civil rights have been violated, which we believe have been because of the attack on people’s religions, but then we want to ensure that the Department of Education has strong enforcement actions. And that could include pulling federal funding. No federal funds should flow to colleges that fail to protect students. And so that we don’t know that that’s going to happen. But we think it may lead to that. We’ll take this investigation as far as we can go.
TODD: [01:34:27] All right. Well, Congresswoman, we are going to leave it there. You’ve got a lot of people listening to you around the nation that are are just applauding the efforts of you and your fellow Republicans up on Capitol Hill. So we thank you for that and wish you and your family a very merry Christmas and a happy holiday.