Former President Barack Obama reportedly intervened to try to help save Harvard President Claudine Gay as she faced calls to step down.
Gay testified alongside University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth in which the three refused to say if calling for the genocide of Jews violated the college’s code of conduct during a House Education Committee hearing.
Gay has since faced numerous calls to step down. (RELATED: ‘It’s Racist To Expect The Best …?’: John McWhorter Calls For Harvard President Claudine Gay To Resign)
Obama, a Harvard graduate himself, allegedly lobbied on Gay’s behalf, Jewish Insider reported citing “a source familiar with the matter.”
NEW @J_Insider via @matthewkassel:
“Former President Obama privately lobbied on Harvard President Claudine Gay’s behalf as she faces growing scrutiny” https://t.co/jsPb30bsho
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) December 22, 2023
“It sounded like people were being asked to close ranks to keep the broader administration stable – including its composition,” a source with knowledge of Obama’s alleged involvement told Jewish Insider.
Misinformation cops want you to ignore obvious examples of plagiarism committed by Harvard’s President Claudine Gay because… reasons?
Beware the gatekeepers of misinformation who pretend that it is somehow in everybody’s best interest if accurate information is kept quiet—and… pic.twitter.com/FvFzzgKDzn
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) December 21, 2023
I find it difficult to believe that the @Harvard Corporation board could still be in unanimous support of President Gay.
They must now realize that they made a bad choice and that their continued support for President Gay is not just enormously damaging to Harvard, but it is…
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) December 22, 2023
The House Education Committee opened an investigation into the university’s “learning environments, policies, and disciplinary procedures” following the testimony.
“My entire career, I’ve been teaching students it’s wrong to do what Gay did, and I expect most writing teachers have done the same…”
Three ways to resolve this conundrum:
1.) Lower the standards for everyone to accommodate Harvard’s President
2.) Fire Harvard’s President in… https://t.co/hu0vvAAym7— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) December 22, 2023
The tipping point is here. It’d really be good if Claudine Gay resigned now. The mere 11 papers was unseemly, but just maybe a university president doesn’t need to be a top-class scholar. But the sheer volume of the plagiarism ON TOP OF THIS is a really bad look.
— John McWhorter (@JohnHMcWhorter) December 21, 2023
Billionaire donor Len Blavatnik’s family foundation is pausing donations to the university following the hearings, now urging the school to handle the rise in anti-Semitism more aggressively.
Following the disastrous hearing, Gay has come under further fire for allegedly plagiarizing several works. The Harvard Corporation, which is the university’s highest governing board, admitted they were aware of plagiarism allegations since October. The newest complaint provided 39 examples of Gay’s alleged plagiarism despite the Harvard Corporation’s review claiming they found only “a few instances of inadequate citation.”
Gay appears to have copied paragraphs while failing to provide proper attribution.
Gay has since issued corrections to two articles involving “quotation marks and citations” that she had been accused of plagiarizing.