Top Democrats Asked About Harvard President Claudine Gay After Vote To Keep Her In Office

At a House Democratic press briefing on Tuesday, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) was asked about Harvard President Claudine Gay.

Transcript

00:00 I just want to get your thoughts on this.

00:03 So obviously there was that education hearing last week.

00:06 You had Congresswoman Elise Stefanik calling for the resignation of the university president.

00:11 Harvard came out with a statement this morning saying that they will back their president.

00:16 Stefanik has still come out saying that that is not an acceptable move.

00:19 But there are Democrats who have been saying that Republicans on this front have been hypocritical

00:23 when it comes to calling for the end of anti-Semitism, but they do not condemn the actions of white

00:29 nationalists throughout the country.

00:30 So what are your thoughts on that and how do you think that this needs to play out now

00:34 as Republicans continue this call?

00:36 Yeah, I mean this Republican call is, I think my first observation is, discussions around

00:45 Israel and anti-Semitism are so important, they're so impactful, they need to be also

00:52 apolitical.

00:53 We need to keep the politics out of this.

00:57 This has been an issue of bipartisan discussion and concern in the past.

01:03 My concern today is that House Republicans are doing everything they can to try to push

01:11 forward these issues and make them partisan when there is clearly bipartisan support.

01:18 There is bipartisan support to continue to stand with our colleagues – our friends

01:25 in Israel – as well as to ensure that we defeat Hamas, return hostages back, provide

01:32 aid to the Palestinian people.

01:35 Those are the topics that unite us.

01:37 Those are the issues that unite us.

01:39 The distraction around questions and college presidents, that's – Republicans just

01:45 trying to further divide us.

01:47 And I think that's unfortunate because this is a topic that screams for bipartisan support.

01:54 And we're going to do our level best to make sure that we do that each and every term.