White House Gives Update On 'Behind Closed Doors' Talks With Harvard

Forbes Breaking News

In a press briefing on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt shared details about the Trump Administration's talks with Harvard University.

Transcript

00:00and our American workers here at home.

00:02And on Harvard's online, the administration today formally accused Harvard of violating civil rights laws

00:07by not doing enough to fight anti-Semitism.

00:10We know that the president has talked to us before about Harvard potentially having a deal with administration in the coming days.

00:18Do you have an updated timeline for that? How is the negotiations going?

00:22And is more pressure needed for Harvard to take fighting anti-Semitism seriously?

00:27Well, there was quite a direct letter that was sent to Harvard this morning, as you know.

00:32The negotiations are taking place behind closed doors, so I won't comment on that.

00:37But what I will share with all of you, for those who haven't seen it, is the context of this letter,

00:41because I think it's very important.

00:44And this comes from the Department of Health and Human Services,

00:47which concluded after a thorough investigation that Harvard University is in a violent violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act,

00:55which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin.

01:00And if you read some of the content of the investigation and what they found,

01:04the majority of Jewish students reportedly experienced negative bias or discrimination on their campus,

01:11while a quarter of Jewish students at Harvard felt physically unsafe.

01:16Jewish and Israeli students were assaulted and spit on.

01:18They had their kippahs for fear of being harassed and concealed their Jewish identity from classmates

01:23for fear of ostracization.

01:26Images were widely circulated amongst the Harvard community that trafficked in obvious anti-Semitic tropes,

01:32including one that showed a dollar sign inside of a Star of David,

01:35and the campus was vandalized with anti-Semitic stickers,

01:38including one that showed the Israeli flag with a swastika.

01:41The Harvard campus was wracked by demonstrations, as you all know,

01:45violent protests that violated the university's rules of conduct.

01:50The demonstrations called for genocide and murder,

01:53denied Jewish and Israeli students access to campus spaces.

01:57These are all facts that Harvard cannot dispute,

02:00and that's why the administration has found them in violation of Title VI

02:04and has threatened to withhold their federal funding,

02:06because if you break federal law, you should not be receiving federal tax dollars.

02:10And so I rest my case on Harvard.

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