Former Vice President Al Gore reacted to the congressional testimony of Claudine Gay, President of Harvard.
Gay appeared before the House Education and Workforce Committee on Tuesday, when she avoided questions regarding students who advocate the "genocide of Jews" and whether they are violating the school's code of conduct. Instead, she said she thought any reference to genocide was "abhorrent." Gore is an alumnus of Harvard University.
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"Well, I was shocked by the tone-deafness of those comments, and I think they got bad legal advice in putting together what they were going to say," Gore said on State of the Union Sunday.
On Thursday, Gay issued an apology to the campus newspaper following her congressional testimony. She assured students that she felt regret and that "words matter."
Gore agreed with the statement, saying that Gay and the former University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, who also testified before the House committee on Tuesday, "certainly do need to clarify that."
"And we need to respect one another in our country. And when statements of the kind they were asked about come out, we need to stand against them and stand firm as Americans for respect for all of the communities that make up America," Gore said. "E pluribus unum. We need to be one country."
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Magill has since resigned as UPenn president as a result of the fallout of her congressional testimony. Gay is still facing calls to resign herself. Harvard named Gay its president this July.
Earlier this fall, some 36 student groups from Harvard signed a letter that read they “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” after Hamas fired thousands of rockets and also sent dozens of fighters into Israel. Gay was pressured to issue a response then, assuring that "our University rejects hate." Still, an Israeli couple left Harvard's board because of the letter, and the university lost donations.