Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Scott Jennings Unburies Devastating Rebuke Of Harvard Tucked Inside Ruling Against Trump Admin

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Republican strategist Scott Jennings pointed out Wednesday that a federal court noted pervasive antisemitism at Harvard even as it ruled against the Trump administration.

United States District Judge Allison D. Burroughs of the District of Massachusetts, an Obama appointee, claimed that the Trump administration’s decision to freeze $2 billion in funds for the Ivy League school was unconstitutional in a ruling issued Wednesday. Jennings noted that Harvard’s win was still an “embarrassment” for the school.

“My view is, there’ll be an appeal. I don’t know where the legal case is going to shake out. I think this has been really embarrassing for Harvard,” Jennings told “CNN NewsNight” host Abby Phillip. “I mean, now you have a federal judge saying antisemitism is intolerable. It is clear, even based solely on Harvard’s own admission, that Harvard has been plagued by antisemitism, could have done a better job dealing with the issue.”

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“I mean, it is now widely known throughout our entire society that our nation’s flagship university, perhaps formerly, was plagued by antisemitism, and this administration was willing to call it out and fight it out,” Jennings continued. “It’s a fight worth having.”

Harvard filed suit after Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced on May 6 that the Ivy League school would not receive future grants, saying it displayed a “systemic pattern of violating federal law,” citing its failure to address the antisemitic harassment and its efforts to continue using race as a factor for admissions.

“Defendants and the President are right to combat antisemitism and to use all lawful means to do so. Harvard was wrong to tolerate hateful behavior for as long as it did,” Burroughs wrote in the ruling.

“Harvard is currently, even if belatedly, taking steps it needs to take to combat antisemitism and seems willing to do even more if need be,” Burroughs added later in her 84-page opinion. “Now it is the job of the courts to similarly step up, to act to safeguard academic freedom and freedom of speech as required by the Constitution.”

The Department of Homeland Security terminated Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification May 22, citing the Ivy League school’s failure to address antisemitism and its failure to provide accurate data on funds from foreign sources.

Since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the radical Islamic terrorist group Hamas that killed over 1,200 people in Israel, pro-Hamas protesters  occupied buildings, chanted a slogan that had connotations of wiping out Israel and blocked Jewish students from parts of campus at multiple universities, including Harvard.