Amid the Trump administration’s feud with Harvard University, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said she wants the school to come to negotiate with the White House.
“I’d love to have Harvard come back to the table to negotiate with us,” McMahon exclusively told ABC News on Wednesday. “Their response [to the administration’s demands] was a lawsuit, but we will continue talking if they want to talk.”
Leaving her department’s policies and priorities hearing on Capitol Hill, McMahon said the administration has been actively communicating with Harvard and said the school has complied with some of its orders to end discrimination, including alleged DEI and antisemitic activity.
Harvard has taken steps to address the alleged antisemitism, including issuing guidance clarifying its Non-Discrimination and Anti-Bullying (NDAB) policies. The school has enhanced and expanded educational training sessions on antisemitism through the Bok Center for teaching and learning.
McMahon said Harvard has an ongoing lawsuit, so the negotiations are held up in the courts.
McMahon faced a barrage of questions about her mission to shutter the Department of Education during the more than three-hour grilling before the House Education and Workforce Committee on Wednesday, but throughout the hearing, she championed the department’s efforts to combat antisemitism.
“I actually think that we spurred them on,” McMahon told Harvard alum Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., claiming the alleged crisis at Harvard has slowly dissipated with the help of the administration’s pressure campaign.
“When we started putting teeth into what we were doing, they finally said okay, we are going to make some changes and they did that shortly after our investigations.”
The conflict between the Trump administration and Harvard stems from the administration’s multi-agency joint task force on antisemitism, which froze over $2 billion in federal funding from the institution. After Harvard refused to comply with the administration’s demands, claiming Trump had abused his executive authority, the saga spiraled into several more moves by the administration,
This has included halting new research grants, investigating the Harvard Law Review for alleged discrimination, and attempting to bar the university from enrolling international students.
During her testimony Wednesday, McMahon said antisemitism is a civil rights violation under the Title VI anti-discrimination law, making the distinction that pro-Palestinian demonstrations are not a First Amendment issue.
She said Jewish students are afraid to be on Harvard’s campus and the administration is working to provide them a “safe environment.”
“We want to ensure that students who attend these elite universities feel safe on campus when they are there and that there aren’t acts of antisemitism or discrimination of any form,” McMahon said.
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