Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and other politicians cheered the resignation of University of Pennsylvania’s now-former president Liz Magill, who stepped down following disastrous congressional testimony about antisemitism on campus.
“One down. Two to go,” said Stefanik, the House GOP conference chair who grilled Magill and the presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the tense hearing last week.
“This is only the very beginning of addressing the pervasive rot of antisemitism that has destroyed the most ‘prestigious’ higher education institutions in America,” she added in a statement.
Magill announced her resignation Saturday, as did University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees Chair Scott Bok.
It came after Magill took heat for ducking questions about whether students who chant in favor of genocide against Jews should be punished during congressional hearing Tuesday.
Stefanik pressed Magill and the other university presidents, Claudine Gay, of Harvard, and Sally Kornbluth, of MIT, about student chants, including for “intifada,” which she noted was a call for “the genocide of Jews.”
Magill later released an apology and clarified that calls for the genocide of Jews are “evil, plain and simple.”
Other politicians on Sunday blasted Magill and her fellow campus leaders for their responses during the jarring hearing.
“Any college president in this country who cannot condemn antisemitism, cannot condemn Jewish genocide, they need to resign or be fired,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told “Fox News Sunday.”
“It’s disgusting. It’s shameful, and it shouldn’t be happening on our college campuses.”
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Ut.) stressed that he wasn’t going to tell the remaining presidents what to do, but called their responses during that congressional hearing an “extraordinary failure.”
“What they did in that hearing was absolutely repugnant, was outrageous, incomprehensible. It would have been violated the very premises of American unity,” Romney told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who now helms Trump Media & Technology Group, similarly voiced his astonishment at the hearing.
“Seldom do you have a congressional hearing that that results in something happening so quickly,” Nunes told “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“I would give the Republicans a lot of credit here that they actually expose what really is stupidity for some of the smartest well known universities around the country,” he said.
“I’m glad to learn that she will resign,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) simply wrote on X.
“UPenn sacked its pathetic President & now faces a harder choice: (1) Expand speech codes to add antisemitism to the list of viewpoints they already ban, OR (2) Embrace true free speech & abandon censorship altogether. #2 would be admirable, but #1 is where they’ll likely land,” presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy said.
Magill’s resignation came in the context of campus donors becoming squeamish amid mounting backlash to her testimony.
During the exchange, Stefanik drilled down on the Ivy Leagy institution’s policies toward harassment of Jews on campus.
“Calling for the genocide of Jews,” Stefanik asked during the hearing, “does that constitute bullying or harassment?”
“If it is directed and severe, pervasive, it is harassment,” Magill responded.
“It is a context-dependent decision, congresswoman,” she later added.
“That’s your testimony today? Calling for the genocide of Jews is depending upon the context?” Stefanik shot back.
Following the hearing before the House Education and Workforce Committee to examine the prestigious institutions’ policies toward combating antisemitism on campus, Stefanik demanded the three presidents resign.
Even the White House was seemingly taken aback by the hearing.
“It’s unbelievable that this needs to be said: calls for genocide are monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country,” Andrew Bates, White House senior communications adviser and deputy press secretary, said in a statement.
The GOP-led paneled chaired by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) announced Thursday that it will launch a broader investigation into antisemitism on college campuses.
This comes against the backdrop of antisemitic episodes on colleges campuses across the country skyrocketing since the Oct. 7 surprise attack from Hamas.