Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce on Tuesday tore into Harvard University’s president—“that Black woman in power,” as Bruce referred to her—over her congressional testimony about the rise of antisemitism on college campuses.
During a contentious House hearing on Tuesday, Dr. Claudine Gay, along with other heads of prestigious American universities, defended herself against allegations she has allowed antisemitism to run rampant at Harvard during the Israel-Hamas war. “I have sought to confront hate while preserving free expression,” Gay said during her testimony. “This is difficult work, and I know that I have not always gotten it right.”
In a recent survey, the Anti-Defamation League found that “73 percent of Jewish college students surveyed have experienced or witnessed some form of antisemitism since the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year alone.” Additionally, only 39 percent of Jewish students now feel comfortable with others on campus knowing they are Jewish, down from 64 percent prior to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.
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Towards the end of The Faulkner Focus on Tuesday, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner aired live coverage of Gay’s testimony, which featured her being grilled by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) on Harvard's code of conduct, asking her whether students who chanted “from the river to the sea”—which the congresswoman likened to “the genocide of Jews”—would be disciplined or expelled.
“As I’ve said, that type of hateful, reckless, offensive speech is personally abhorrent to me,” Gay responded, adding: “When speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies, including policies against bullying, harassment, or intimidation, we take action. And we have robust disciplinary processes that allow us to hold individuals accountable.”
Faulkner then turned to Bruce to weigh in on Gay’s comments, prompting the conservative commentator to unload on the Harvard official in a rant that soon invoked Gay’s racial background.
“It is heartbreaking to see a woman in such a position of power abandon that power. She sounds like a robot,” Bruce groused. “She refuses to answer questions. Everything is at stake. The future of those young people is at stake. This nation’s at stake.”
Claiming the left has repeatedly insisted that “speech is violence,” the Fox News pundit asserted that Gay refused to condemn actual hate speech in her testimony. “What does she exactly want? Does she want genocide to happen first?” Bruce exclaimed.
She then seemed to suggest Gay is unconcerned with antisemitism on campus because it largely impacts white students. The president would act immediately, Bruce implied, if it were anti-Black racism at Harvard.
“So this is what the problem is, is that this isn’t just some slogan or chant,” Bruce declared. “We would be hearing something very different if it was people in robes, in [Ku Klux] Klan robes, shouting ‘Lynch certain people,’ using certain words. It would be inherently and deeply unacceptable.”
She concluded: “Action would be taken. Those people would be expelled because it would be a hate crime. We’ve gone through years of hate crimes being defined. This is the epitome of it. And that Black woman in power, God help us, she has abandoned that power.”
