Harvard President Claudine Gay has resigned, finally relenting to overwhelming pressure building since December when Gay’s response to questioning from House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY)’s sparked widespread outrage.
Stefanik’s devastating line of questioning came as Gay received widespread criticism for the university’s response to the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel of October 7 and after more than 30 of its student groups signed a pro-terror statement blaming Israel for the attack against itself.
Gay’s resignation after only six months makes her the shortest tenured president in the long history of Harvard.
“Two down,” Stefanik told Breitbart News and later posted on X. “Harvard knows that this long overdue forced resignation of the antisemitic plagiarist president is just the beginning of what will be the greatest scandal of any college or university in history.”
🚨🚨🚨
TWO DOWN. @Harvard knows that this long overdue forced resignation of the antisemitic plagiarist president is just the beginning of what will be the greatest scandal of any college or university in history.https://t.co/ZJLxrHw1Zd
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) January 2, 2024
During the hearing, Gay, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth infamously declined to say to Stefanik whether advocating for the genocide of Jews is permissible on campus.
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 05: (L-R) Dr. Claudine Gay, President of Harvard University, Liz Magill, President of University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Sally Kornbluth, President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The exchange exploded online and across television. Days later, Magill resigned. Kornbluth, who continues facing her own calls to resign, remains in place for now.
Gay’s disastrous testimony, coupled with her abysmal record, triggered a deeper look into her history and resumé, which brought to light numerous instances of plagiarism.
Those allegations continued to mount as a more alleged plagiarism was exposed. Yet Gay persisted as the university continued to support her.
Stefanik, herself a Harvard graduate, has called for more resignations at the university over the scandal. She accused the Harvard Corporation Board Members, who resisted calls for Gay’s termination, for covering up Gay’s transgressions.
Stay tuned. @Harvard Corporation Board Members’ resignations must be forthcoming.
They are complicit in covering up this massive scandal with unbelievable arrogance and cavalier attitudes that irreparably damaged @Harvard’s academic integrity and moral leadership.
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) January 2, 2024
In her resignation letter, Gay attributed her decision to “personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.” She did not mention her leadership record or the multiple allegations of plagiarism that helped propel her to the presidency.
“When my brief presidency is remembered, I hope it will be seen as a moment of reawakening to the importance of striving to find our common humanity—and of not allowing rancor and vituperation to undermine the vital process of education,” she wrote.
Despite her academic and professional record being tarnished by plagiarism allegations, Gay’s letter suggested she will remain on the Harvard faculty.
The Harvard Corporation’s statement on Gay’s resignation, which credited her stewardship during the COVID-19 “pandemic” as a factor in her initial hiring while not mentioning her alleged plagiarism (or its failure to discover them during its hiring process), applauded her “remarkable resilience in the face of deeply personal and sustained attacks.”
It continued, “While some of this has played out in the public domain, much of it has taken the form of repugnant and in some cases racist vitriol directed at her.”
In touting Gay’s resignation, Stefanik noted that the video of her line of questioning in the hearing is the most viewed Congressional testimony in the history of Congress while pledging to continue exposing the “rot” in higher education institutions.
I will always deliver results. The resignation of Harvard’s antisemitic plagiarist president is long overdue. Claudine Gay’s morally bankrupt answers to my questions made history as the most viewed Congressional testimony in the history of the U.S. Congress. Her answers were…
— Rep. Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) January 2, 2024
“Our robust Congressional investigation will continue to move forward to expose the rot in our most ‘prestigious’ higher education institutions and deliver accountability to the American people,” she wrote.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
