Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) accused President Donald Trump of trying to exercise “Stalinist-style control” over colleges and universities across the country.
Discussing a ruling in Harvard University’s favor, Raskin said, “It’s a powerful decision because it says, you know Harvard has had its problems with anti-Semitism. It’s it’s acknowledged them, it’s faced them, it’s confronted them and that’s got nothing to do with the Donald Trump administration trying to take over their admissions process, take over their curriculum, take over their faculty hiring.”
He continued, “All of that is just being used as an excuse for this power grab. The administration must release the more than $2 billion that’s been withheld in critical scientific research funding. And so this is an important victory not just for Harvard but for colleges and universities all across the country who are under this severe threat to their academic freedom and to their scientific research.”
He added, “Obviously, Trump has wanted to attack any kind of diversity or equity initiative at the colleges and universities and made common cause with the most right-wing forces in the country to try to dismantle it. Of course, if there were any race discrimination or gender discrimination going on, then people should bring those as lawsuits, but otherwise the federal government should back off and allow the colleges and universities to govern themselves. We don’t need the Trump administration and Stephen Miller and Donald Trump micromanaging the admissions process of colleges and universities across the country. We’re talking about thousands of campuses and, you know, we don’t need to have Stalinist-style control.”
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