The White House condemned the presidents of three top universities Wednesday after they appeared to sidestep questions during a congressional hearing about whether students calling for the genocide of Jews violates their schools’ codes of conduct.
“It’s unbelievable that this needs to be said: calls for genocide are monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country. Any statements that advocate for the systematic murder of Jews are dangerous and revolting — and we should all stand firmly against them, on the side of human dignity and the most basic values that unite us as Americans,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement Wednesday.
His statement came in response to congressional testimony Tuesday from Claudine Gay of Harvard University, Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing about antisemitism on college campuses, the university leaders said there has been a sharp rise in anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim incidents at their respective campuses since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. They condemned antisemitism and Islamophobia broadly and said they were taking steps to address the issue.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., chairwoman of the House GOP Conference, asked Gay, Magill and Kornbluth whether a student calling for the genocide of Jews would violate student codes of conduct at their schools, but they repeatedly deflected the question.
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox.> Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
For more on this story go to NBCNews.com.
