Rep. Blunt Rochester Statement on College President Resolution
Washington,
December 13, 2023
Today, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) issued the following statement after voting against a resolution that called for the resignation of the presidents of Harvard and MIT.
“Any call for the genocide of the Jewish people is vile, unacceptable, and a call for violence. It has no place in civilized society and certainly not on college campuses. The answers given by the respective college presidents during last week’s hearing were also unacceptable, and there should be no equivocation in the rejection of a call for genocide. I was pleased that the presidents recognized that they had made a serious mistake in that equivocation and have since clarified their answers. We all must come together to confront and combat hate wherever we see it and no matter who it is aimed at. The resolution we voted on today, however, went beyond simply condemning the answers given by the presidents and, instead, functioned as a Congressional demand to resign. That demand is, in my view, beyond the appropriate role of Congress. Calling for the resignation of private citizens from their place of employment is also a dramatic departure from Congressional precedent. Because of those considerations, I voted no.”
### |
