A Republican member of Congress claimed on Tuesday to have undergone a “rite of passage and badge of honor” and accused Harvard University of “caving to the woke left”, after she lost an advisory role for perpetuating Donald Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
Representative Elise Stefanik of New York was removed from a senior advisory committee at Harvard’s school of government after she declined to resign voluntarily, according to Douglas Elmendorf, dean of the Harvard Kennedy School.
Hundreds of students and alumni called on Harvard to cut ties with Stefanik, a 2006 Harvard graduate, after last week’s violent insurrection at the US Capitol, which Trump incited.
Stefanik was among 147 Republicans who went ahead with objections to certifying Joe Biden’s election, even after the attack left five people dead.
She condemned the rioters but repeated false claims about “unprecedented voting irregularities” in the presidential election.
Until Harvard took action, Stefanik was one of roughly a dozen current and former public servants on a senior advisory committee for the Institute of Politics, a program intended to get undergraduates interested in public service careers.
In a statement, Stefanik said: “The decision by Harvard’s administration to cower and cave to the woke left will continue to erode diversity of thought, public discourse and ultimately the student experience.”
Elmendorf said the decision was not based on political ideology.
“Rather, in my assessment, Elise has made public assertions about voter fraud in November’s presidential election that have no basis in evidence, and she has made public statements about court actions related to the election that are incorrect.”
Stefanik, who represents an upstate New York district, was re-elected to a fourth term in November.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
