U.S. Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) is holding his silence following an Arizona Sun Times press inquiry on Sunday about the refusal of Harvard University President Claudine Gay to state whether calling for the genocide of Jewish people is considered a violation of the university’s code of conduct.
Gay refused to state whether calls to commit violence and genocide against the Jewish people violated the university’s code of conduct during a five-minute exchange with Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21). Gay repeatedly told Stefanik she finds such remarks and calls to action “personally abhorrent,” but said such language would receive First Amendment protections at Harvard.
The university later released a statement from Gay which accused critics of having “confused a right to free expression that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students,” but insisted that “calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community” will “have no place at Harvard,” and promised punishments for those making such threats. Few critics were mollified, and Gay apologized again the next day, directly to students, in a statement to The Harvard Crimson.
Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Gay “disgraced” Harvard “by refusing to condemn violent antisemitism [and] calls for genocide against Jewish students on her campus,” and argued her remarks “should be met with universal condemnation.”
However, Lake noted that Gallego, a 2004 graduate of Harvard, “remains silent” and “refuses to condemn her antisemitism.”
Harvard President Claudine Gray disgraced herself, & her university, by refusing to condemn violent antisemitism & calls for genocide against Jewish students on her campus.
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) December 8, 2023
It should be met with universal condemnation.
But @RubenGallego, class of 04, remains silent. He refuses… https://t.co/Jr6ypjpFVB
