At a House Education & Workforce Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) questioned Education Secretary Linda McMahon about the administration's treatment of Harvard University.
00:00Gentlemen, and I recognize the gentleman and teacher from California, Mr. Peticano.
00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for being here, Madam Secretary. Good to see you again.
00:08Let's get right to it. Madam Secretary, do you believe that the federal government is legally
00:13or constitutionally permitted to punish a private entity for having a different viewpoint than the
00:19administration? What do you mean by that? Well, does the government have the power,
00:26or is it legal or constitutional for you, the Secretary, to punish a private entity for having
00:33a different viewpoint than the administration? I don't know what you mean by punish. Can you be
00:37more specific? Well, let's move on. Apparently, I don't want to get into this back and forth on this.
00:46Let me say, this poster here, you gave an interview on CNBC on May 28th, and discussing the cancellation
00:55of Harvard University's federal funding, grants, and contracts. And you said, and I quote,
00:59universities should continue to be able to do research as long as they're abiding by the laws
01:04and in sync, I think, with the administration and what I think the administration is trying to accomplish.
01:11So, what you're saying, so you're saying Harvard can have its funding and its international students
01:16back if and when it teaches what the Trump administration demands. These demands are included
01:22in this April 11th letter signed by the Department of Education and other agencies and include a
01:29requirement that the government must be able to, quote-unquote, audit the viewpoints of its student
01:34body, faculty, staff, to ensure, quote-unquote, viewpoint diversity. I ask unanimous consent to submit
01:41this letter for the record. Without objection, it will be submitted. And it says, I quote, in the letter,
01:47quote, Harvard must abolish all criteria, preferences, and practices through its admissions and hiring
01:53practices that function as ideological litmus tests, end quote. Now, Madam Secretary, what are
02:00the limits of this viewpoint diversity that the administration is trying to enforce? Under these
02:05demands, for example, would the Harvard Government Department be compelled to hire faculty that believe
02:12the 2020 election was stolen?
02:17I believe that there are rights to freedom of speech. And on campuses and universities,
02:27of colleges and universities across the country, freedom of speech should be allowed. There should
02:33be open debate. There should be different viewpoints.
02:35I'm not asking you a question about freedom of speech here. Madam Secretary, I'm asking you about
02:39the limits of viewpoint diversity cited in this letter. You demand that Harvard would be compelled
02:48to hire faculty. I mean, well, you're saying that there has to be a viewpoint diversity. I'm just
02:53asking you, would Harvard, would the Government Department be compelled to hire faculty that believe
02:58the 2020 election was stolen? As an example of viewpoint diversity. However, one of the things
03:05the Harvard Crimson and by its own- Okay, I think you're- you don't really have an answer,
03:09so I'm going to move on to other questions. Maybe we can clarify by the questions. What viewpoint diversity
03:14mean, for example- If you want to know the answer, you want to know what my response is?
03:18Reclaiming my time, Madam Secretary. Okay, go ahead. Would the Harvard Medical School, who's looking to hire an immunologist,
03:24would that person need to adhere to HHS Secretary Kennedy's view on the efficacy of vaccines?
03:33Listen, we all know that we should have our universities look at what all the programs are-
03:40I don't think you really thought through this viewpoint diversity issue-
03:43The political ideology that you're trying to put forth is a false narrative.
03:46Okay. And the funding is a privilege- Madam Secretary- It's not a right.
03:50Reclaim my time. Does refusing to hire a Holocaust denier as a member of Harvard's History Department faculty count as an ideological limits test?
04:03I believe that there should be diversity of viewpoints relative to teachings and opinions on campuses.
04:09But what about this situation of Harvard's History Department, and they're looking for another department member?
04:17Would being a Holocaust denier count as-
04:21I do know that Harvard did replace its head of Middle Eastern Studies even before we looked at it,
04:27because they believed that they needed to make changes already.
04:30Okay. Can you explain to me how cutting funding to improve-
04:35to cutting funding to cancer research, which may save the lives of children, will help Jewish students on campus?
04:45Well, we had to put some teeth in the anti-Semitism studies, so we used-
04:51that actually didn't come from the Department of Education, it came from HHS.
04:54So therefore, Harvard had indicated that it might even take from its endowment, which is $53 billion,
05:00some funds to continue that research, and I think that might have been a really good use for some of those funds.
05:05Well, I think it's pretty clear you haven't really thought through this whole viewpoint-
05:10Well, you wouldn't know because you haven't allowed me to answer my questions, but thank you.
05:14Well, I think you were showing that you couldn't really answer the questions.
