On Sunday’s “Face the Nation” on CBS, Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) said she will defend her state’s universities against the Trump administration’s attacks.
Partial transcript as follows:
MARGARET BRENNAN: Just a few days ago, Cornell University reached a $60 million deal with the Trump administration in order to see their federal funding restored. This is the fifth such deal since the administration began this pressure campaign on universities. I know you went to University of Virginia, as did I, and must be following that. UVA cut deals with the government, including kicking out the president of the school. You called that extortion. But now, as governor, are you going to have to play ball with the Department of Education and the Justice Department in order to keep federal government funding going?
SPANBERGER: So it should, It should shock everyone that universities, public and private, are receiving demands from the federal government and that dollars, research dollars, are being withheld, that our universities are under attack. And certainly what we’ve seen in the case the University of Virginia, a popular, experienced, excellent president was pushed out, and on the ground here, we did not see our governor in any way step up in defense of our university. And the idea that the federal government would be withholding federal dollars, including dollars already appropriated by Congress for research, in order to compel universities to take certain actions, it is absolute federal government overreach, and as governor, I will be clear eyed about ensuring that we have structures in place, including boards of visitors across our universities that want to defend academic freedom and frankly, the viability and vitality of extraordinary institutions like the University of Virginia.
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