During a speech on the House floor Thursday, Rep. Kevin Kiely (R-CA) tore into university responses to antisemitism on campus, and hammered Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for her line of questioning during Thursday's House Education Committee hearing.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Thank you to my colleague from Florida.
00:10 Today the Education and the Workforce Committee held a hearing with the presidents of three
00:16 universities UCLA, Northwestern, and Rutgers.
00:21 And at the hearing, I joined the Anti-Defamation League in calling for the resignation of at
00:28 least one of them.
00:30 But I want to provide some reflection on what transpired today and what has transpired at
00:40 several hearings that we've now had.
00:41 We've had the chance to hear testimony from and question seven university presidents now.
00:48 In addition to those three, also Columbia, Penn, Harvard, and MIT.
00:53 Two of those presidents from Penn and from Harvard have already resigned following the
01:00 hearings.
01:01 And what's striking about these hearings is just how difficult it is for these university
01:08 presidents to answer in a straightforward way to the clearest questions of right and
01:16 wrong.
01:17 And it's striking the way that they have been unable to take the most common sense steps
01:25 on their campuses to stop lawlessness and to curb this terrible rise in anti-Semitism.
01:34 And when you look at the folks who testified today, or for that matter, any of the seven
01:38 presidents we've heard from, I don't think there's any of us who would suggest that these
01:44 individuals are themselves anti-Semitic or prejudiced.
01:50 And yet, they seem to believe that appeasing anti-Semites, appeasing anti-Semitic constituencies
01:59 on their campuses, and thereby institutionalizing, normalizing, to use the word that the Anti-Defamation
02:06 League does, anti-Semitism at their universities, they seem to believe that's what they have
02:10 to do in order to keep their jobs.
02:15 And so this is itself a fundamental failure of leadership and a reason to doubt the fitness
02:23 of any of these particular individuals to lead major universities.
02:30 But it also speaks to the overarching challenges we now face in American higher education,
02:38 where they feel the need, these leaders of our top universities, to cater to the most
02:43 bigoted and backwards forces at the expense of their own students' safety, well-being,
02:50 and education.
02:52 So I think it is vitally important that the education and the workforce committee continues
02:57 to shine a light on the horrible things that are unfolding at American universities while
03:03 at the same time trying to direct our higher education system in the direction of badly
03:12 needed reforms that have, because we have seen how many longstanding problems have gotten
03:19 us to this point.
03:22 But to go into a little more detail about what transpired today, I asked each of the
03:28 three university presidents, the president of Rutgers, the president of Northwestern,
03:34 and the chancellor of UCLA, if physically blocking a student from entering their campus
03:42 on the basis of the student's race, ethnicity, or religion is an expellable offense.
03:51 And I was rather taken aback by the responses.
03:54 Not one of them could give a simple yes.
03:57 That is by its very nature an expellable offense.
04:01 Instead, they said it depends upon the circumstances, the context, and so forth.
04:09 I found that to be a rather shocking response.
04:13 I think the correct response would have been, well, yes, of course, if the facts show that
04:20 someone is physically blocking a student from entering campus, is using force to deny them
04:27 access to our university that they're paying tuition to, and they're explicitly doing so
04:34 in order to exclude people of that person's race, ethnicity, or religion, that is by its
04:40 very nature something that would mean you should never be able to set foot on that campus
04:45 again.
04:46 Any individual who would engage in such conduct.
04:49 But not one of them could give that response.
04:53 What's worse is this, of course, is not a hypothetical situation.
04:58 It's something that we saw happen repeatedly at several campuses, and in particular at
05:03 UCLA.
05:05 So I played a video clip for the chancellor that showed exactly this happening.
05:12 A Jewish student, the star of David, who's trying to gain access to his campus to go
05:18 to class, who has his student ID card in his hand, and a group of self-appointed enforcers
05:29 lock arms and form a blockade to stop the student who tries to enter, who puts his hands
05:34 in the air showing he means no harm, and they physically, by force, stop him from entering
05:42 his own university.
05:44 I asked the chancellor of UCLA, who are these people who formed this blockade?
05:48 Are they students?
05:49 He didn't know.
05:50 I asked, have they been disciplined?
05:53 He didn't know.
05:55 It seems very clear that they got away with this absolutely monstrous conduct that should
06:02 have no place in the United States of America.
06:07 To make things even worse, a member of the committee, the representative from Minnesota,
06:15 Congresswoman Omar, actually tried to minimize what had happened.
06:21 In her questions, she suggested that this wasn't such a big deal because there were
06:27 other pathways available to that student.
06:29 So apparently it's okay to block people from moving about their freedom of movement based
06:36 upon their Jewish identity if there are other places that they're allowed to walk.
06:43 Absolutely unbelievable.
06:46 But UCLA's response to this situation was, of course, deeply problematic in a number
06:54 of other ways.
06:56 The situation there was allowed to build and build and build.
07:00 The encampment got larger and larger and larger, and eventually things spiraled out of control
07:05 until eventually the chancellor did the right thing and called upon law enforcement to come
07:12 and enforce the rules for those who refused to leave.
07:16 But it never should have gotten to that point.
07:19 Indeed, we now know that the police chief had advised the university not to allow an
07:27 encampment, and yet UCLA allowed it anyway.
07:32 Now Chancellor Block claims that there is a system-wide UC policy that prevented them
07:40 from moving more quickly.
07:43 If this is so, the University of California needs to change its policy.
07:50 If it's really true that the university will not seek the assistance of law enforcement
07:55 until violence actually manifests itself, that is a deeply problematic policy on a number
08:03 of levels.
08:04 Number one, it allows for the violence to happen until you actually do anything to protect
08:10 students.
08:12 Number two, it allows for all manner of other illegal activity to continue unabated so long
08:19 as those engaging in it characterize their actions as a protest.
08:26 We saw all kinds of illegal activity in this anti-Semitic encampment at UCLA.
08:34 We saw self-appointed students set up checkpoints, as I mentioned before, stopping Jewish students
08:41 from being able to get to class.
08:44 And the university did very little, it would seem, to stop this from happening.
08:48 Indeed, the chancellor couldn't even tell me what happened to the students caught on
08:53 video who were responsible.
08:57 Now this particular university leader, Chancellor Block, has served for 17 years and is retiring
09:05 and will not be at that university very soon.
09:09 So I would leave it to the judgment of the UC system to decide what the consequences
09:17 for him in particular should be, with just a few months remaining in his tenure.
09:24 But I will say there is now news just today that a new encampment has started at UCLA
09:31 and I would suggest that the chancellor needs to learn from what just happened and make
09:38 sure that that is taken care of in short order.
09:41 But generally, I don't think it's my role to be deciding which university leaders should
09:49 stay and which should go.
09:51 Ideally, that would be decided upon using the appropriate channels and that when you
09:56 have clearly fighterable conduct, the Board of Regents, the governance boards would take
10:01 appropriate action.
10:03 But where I would draw the line on a broad level, on a general level, and say that anyone
10:11 who crosses that line is unfit to lead a university, is the line that was drawn by the Anti-Defamation
10:20 League as well as the Brandeis Institute and others.
10:24 In the specific case of the president of Northwestern, who also testified today.
10:31 Now what was different about what happened at Northwestern from some other universities,
10:39 and I believe Northwestern was the first prominent university to do this, is that the university
10:45 president actually ended the encampment by giving the lawless members of that encampment
10:54 what they wanted.
10:56 He agreed to their demands.
10:59 So I want to go through in detail just to have it on the record what those demands were.
11:04 But first I'll read you the statement from the Anti-Defamation League as well as the
11:08 Brandeis Center and Stand With Us.
11:11 It says as follows, "As the three leading organizations in the United States holding
11:16 colleges and universities accountable for creating hostile environments for Jewish students,
11:21 we are shocked and dismayed by the agreement Northwestern University President Michael
11:26 Schill reached on behalf of Northwestern University with encampment protesters yesterday.
11:32 For the last seven months and longer, Jewish Northwestern students have been harassed and
11:37 intimidated by blatant anti-Semitism on campus, worsening since October 7th.
11:42 Yesterday, at the time this was written, President Schill signed an agreement with the perpetrators
11:47 of that harassment and intimidation, rewarding them for their hate.
11:51 For days, protesters openly mocked and violated Northwestern's code of conduct and policies
11:58 by erecting an encampment in which they fanned the flames of anti-Semitism and wreaked havoc
12:03 on the entire university community.
12:06 Their goal was not to find peace, but to make Jewish students feel unsafe on campus.
12:11 Rather than hold them accountable, as he pledged he would, President Schill gave them a seat
12:15 at the table and normalized their hatred against Jewish students.
12:20 It is clear from President Schill's actions that he is unfit to lead Northwestern and
12:25 must resign.
12:27 President Schill capitulated to hatred and bigotry and empowered and emboldened those
12:32 who have used intimidation, harassment, and violence to achieve their ends.
12:37 Instead of issuing fines and suspensions in accordance with university policies, he awarded
12:41 protest groups with scholarships, professorships, and a renovated community home.
12:47 Instead of permanently shutting down the encampment and making campus safe for all, he told protesters
12:52 that they can stay until June 1st.
12:55 Instead of reaffirming a longstanding university policy rejecting the anti-Semitic boycott,
13:01 divestment, and sanctions campaign, he created new pathways to its implementation.
13:07 Instead of holding the perpetrators accountable, he committed Northwestern to actively defend,
13:12 protect, and shield students from anyone else, such as potential future employers who may
13:17 choose to hold the protesters accountable for their harassing and discriminatory conduct.
13:23 The statement concludes, "A prestigious institution that is supposed to be preparing
13:28 our students for the future catastrophically failed to teach responsibility, respect for
13:35 community values, and the fundamental principle that no one is above the law, regardless of
13:40 how deeply or passionately they believe in their own cause."
13:44 They reiterate, "We call on President Schill to resign immediately and trust that if he
13:48 fails to resign, the Board of Trustees will step in as the leaders of the university that
13:53 needs and remove him."
13:56 That statement was issued a couple weeks ago, of course before the testimony that we heard
14:03 today.
14:05 And President Schill still has not resigned, and the Board of Regents still has not removed
14:09 him.
14:10 It can only be concluded that the Board of Regents is endorsing the institutionalization,
14:19 the normalization of anti-Semitism that President Schill is responsible for by appeasing these
14:28 demands.
14:31 There is the substance of the demands, which are deeply rooted in anti-Semitism, and then
14:38 there's also the means by which they were achieved.
14:44 Those means being force.
14:47 This is what I found particularly upsetting about the agreement reached by this president,
14:52 President Schill of Northwestern, as well as President Holloway of Rutgers, is they
14:56 congratulated themselves for it.
14:59 They said that this was the way to negotiate a peaceful resolution.
15:04 As a matter of fact, the exact words of the president were that this was a dialogue.
15:12 They negotiated with their students through dialogue rather than force.
15:18 Through dialogue rather than force.
15:21 Engaging our students with dialogue rather than force.
15:24 Every part of that statement is utterly preposterous.
15:27 First of all, a lot of them weren't students.
15:29 I believe he even admitted to that.
15:32 Second of all, this was not dialogue.
15:37 The president, for one thing, did not even consult with his own anti-Semitism committee
15:44 to ask if they were okay with this agreement.
15:46 In fact, six members of that committee resigned after he reached the agreement with the encampment.
15:53 When he was asked at the hearing today if he had consulted with Jewish students, he
15:56 said that was impractical.
15:59 What an utterly preposterous statement.
16:03 He decides to change university policy in response to the demands of an anti-Semitic
16:09 encampment, and he says it's impractical to even consult with Jewish students.
16:17 Engaging our students with dialogue rather than force.
16:20 It wasn't just students.
16:22 It was not dialogue.
16:24 It was one-sided.
16:26 And the entire negotiation, as it was, was predicated on force.
16:32 The only reason he talked to them at all is because they set up an illegal encampment
16:38 that was used to terrorize students, and they refused to leave when they were ordered to.
16:45 What precedent does that set?
16:47 What incentive does that set for others who want to achieve their objectives, even if
16:53 they are unobjectionable objectives?
16:56 The way to get what you want on this campus is to use force, is to defy the rules, defy
17:04 the law, refuse to leave when you're told to, to try to be as disruptive as possible.
17:15 What's worse is that after Northwestern University's president did this, we have seen this chain
17:21 reaction where other universities are doing the same thing.
17:26 One of which is Rutgers, whose president, President Holloway, was with us today.
17:32 And he reached a similar agreement.
17:35 He said something similar.
17:36 He said, "We engaged our students in a conversation that led to a peaceful resolution."
17:43 Again, an utterly preposterous statement.
17:48 The entire negotiation was predicated on force.
17:51 It was not a conversation.
17:53 It was a one-sided agreement with only those who are willing to resort to the use of force
18:01 in order to get their way.
18:04 I was glad to hear today, by the way, it was confirmed by President Holloway that he is
18:08 no longer under consideration to be the next president of Yale University, of which I'm
18:15 an alum.
18:16 There are many of us who are deeply concerned about the message it would send if Yale, which
18:22 has had many of its own problems when it comes to anti-Semitism on campus, accepted as its
18:29 new president someone who was just responsible for institutionalizing anti-Semitism at his
18:36 own university.
18:39 But there have been others as well throughout the country, several of which are in my state
18:44 of California.
18:46 There has been one instance at least where there's been accountability.
18:49 The president of Sonoma State, after reaching an agreement with the encampment there with
18:56 a number of deeply anti-Semitic provisions, like cutting off study abroad to Israel and
19:03 even scrubbing university materials of any reference to Israel, and then even appointing
19:09 the encampment as a permanent governing council to enforce that agreement, that university
19:14 leader was placed on leave and has now resigned.
19:18 That was the right thing for the leader of the California State University system to
19:24 do.
19:25 However, there are other campuses in California, in the CSU and UC systems, that have reached
19:33 similar capitulation agreements with the lawless encampments on their campuses, who have followed
19:40 this same script of rewarding the use of force, of institutionalizing and normalizing anti-Semitism,
19:48 of setting a precedent that the way to get your way on their campuses is to break the
19:54 rules, break the law, refuse to do what you're asked to do.
20:00 And they all need to face discipline as well.
20:05 There were a number of other remarkable statements at today's hearing with the three university
20:12 presidents though, of UCLA, of Rutgers, and of course, of Northwestern.
20:20 In particular, from the president of Northwestern, who said, "I will not be commenting on the
20:27 speech of our students or faculty or staff."
20:33 A completely preposterous statement.
20:36 This individual has commented on all manner of political issues.
20:39 I was able to find a number of examples, just Googling this on my phone as he said it.
20:46 And the idea that he wouldn't call out or fire or condemn a high-ranking university
20:52 official who makes overtly racist statements, that absolutely defies belief.
21:00 Incredibly, when asked by my colleague, Burgess Owens, if he would have dealt with a KKK demonstration
21:08 in the same manner, he said he would not engage in a hypothetical, refusing to even condemn
21:15 this most offensive of speech.
21:19 Or more than speech, of course, when we're dealing with the conduct that we've seen play
21:24 out on these campuses.
21:27 The president also said that, and the president I'm referring to is President Schill of Northwestern,
21:34 that a police option on that campus was not possible.
21:39 This is how he justifies just appeasing the demands of the encampment rather than enforcing
21:47 the law.
21:48 Well, I find that quite difficult to believe, that there couldn't have been a sufficient
21:54 police response coordinating with local law enforcement to just ensure that those who
21:59 are on the encampment left.
22:01 But it's absolutely hypocritical.
22:03 When you look at the record of this president, President Schill, who actually reduced the
22:07 police and defunded police when he was the president of the University of Oregon.
22:15 So the committee I know is committed to continuing this investigation of anti-Semitism across
22:25 American higher education.
22:29 But it's also important to understand the need for broad reform in higher education
22:38 based upon what we have learned.
22:40 And there have been some encouraging signs lately.
22:44 We saw, for example, MIT just recently said it's no longer going to require so-called
22:51 diversity statements in the faculty hiring process.
22:56 And even the Washington Post came out with an op-ed opposing the use of these diversity
23:03 statements in hiring.
23:05 I think our work is only just beginning.
23:08 The hearings that we've seen so far have been deeply disturbing.
23:13 It's highly important that we continue them and that we continue to keep an eye on every
23:18 university that is failing to adequately address anti-Semitism in order to protect the students
23:24 there, to protect their safety, and to protect their right to an education.
23:28 But we also need to think about fundamental reform when it comes to academic freedom,
23:35 when it comes to freedom of speech, when it comes to faculty hiring, and when it comes
23:39 to so many of the other issues related to even the value of a higher education degree
23:46 in America today.
23:48 I truly believe this can be a turning point.
23:52 America's universities have long been national assets that have helped us to become the greatest
23:58 country in the world, the greatest economy in the world, the nation's leader in innovation
24:06 on all fronts.
24:07 And that is now in danger.
24:10 So I look forward to continuing to work with the committee and colleagues on both sides
24:15 of the aisle, because I want to say we had a number of colleagues across the aisle who
24:20 asked very good questions and expressed appropriate concerns today as well, to work together to
24:24 reclaim our universities as national assets rather than the liabilities that they've increasingly
24:33 become.
24:33 [BLANK_AUDIO]