CNN’s Scott Jennings slammed Democrats defending Harvard University after President Trump threatened to withhold billions of dollars in federal funding. He pointed out how disturbing it would be for Americans to realize they’re funding an elite university with an endowment rivaling the budget of a small country.
“I think, as a political matter, if you went out to the American people right now and said ‘well, we’re just not gonna make it as a country unless we give $9 billion to Harvard, it’s sitting on $53 billion.’ You’d get your ass kicked, I imagine, in a political campaign,”
Jennings added that while these universities “do important work,” there was no justification to keep funding institutions that disregard the will of the American people.
“… I don’t agree that we need to continue to fund people who don’t listen to us when we say ‘you have problems.’”
“I would argue that it’s a national security problem that these Ivy League colleges are turning out people who fundamentally hate Western civilization. So there are points to be made here, and they need to listen.”
It is unacceptable that Americans should continue funding these liberal universities that continue to advance an anti-American agenda.
Trump had requested Harvard to end its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and take action against anti-semitic protesters. However, the university refused to comply, forcing the administration to cut $2.2 billion of the $9 billion in federal funding and $60 million worth of contracts.
Trump, who described the university as a “joke,” has also threatened to revoke the university’s tax-exempt status, which seems reasonable move for an institution that charges over $50,000 per year in tuition.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the General Services Administration wrote a joint letter accusing the oldest and wealthiest university of failing to live up to its expectations.
“Harvard has in recent years failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment.”
They requested that the university take several actions to correct the situation, including ending DEI hiring and admission practices by August 2025.
The demand letter also requested Harvard to reform its admission criteria to “prevent admitting students hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, including students supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism.”
No matter how Democrats try to spin it, those demands were reasonable for any institution that truly respects and upholds American values and intends to benefit from the same for the foreseeable future.
Nonetheless, Harvard is seemingly unwilling to comply with those demands, which it termed as “an attempt to control the Harvard community.”
“The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government. It violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI. And it threatens our values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge.”
Ironically, Harvard may have justified the federal funding freeze by emphasizing its status as a “private institution.”
