One of the heads of a well-known free speech advocacy group called for the Trump administration’s development after Harvard University on Wednesday.
Nico Perrino, executive vice president of the Foundation for Personal Rights and Expression, announced that despite Harvard’s poor record of protecting freedom of speech on campus, the Trump administration urged the agency to punish the rights.
“It's a loaded gun. The presidential administration now uses the same tools to get some possible conservative results, which are tools that liberals can use to get results that they don't like once they change hands.”
Harvard University does not comply with Trump administrators' requests as threats to cut federal funds
Nico Perrino, executive vice president of the Foundation for Personal Rights and Expression (FIRE), called out Donald Trump's crackdown on Harvard University in his latest CNN appearance. (Screen shot/CNN)
The Trump administration said this week that it would freeze more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts after the agency refused to comply last week, after it refused to comply with a set of terms.
The government requires the university to make changes to comply with “a good-based” recruitment and admission practices and to reform its recruitment of international students to “prevent the hostility of recruitment to the values and institutions embodied in the U.S. Constitution, including those who support terrorism or anti-academia, including those who support terrorism or anti-academia.”
President Donald Trump threatened to impose further punishment on the school’s punishment and posted to the truth on Tuesday: “Maybe Harvard should lose its tax exempt status and tax it as a political entity in a constant push to promote politics, ideology and terrorism inspired/supporting “disease” politics, ideology and terrorists. Remember, tax exempt status is entirely dependent on acting in the public interest!”
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The Trump administration announced that Harvard University said it would not comply with federal anti-Semitism requirements and would freeze more than $2 billion in grants and contracts. (AP image)
Prior to criticizing Trump's actions, Perino acknowledged the consequences of Harvard's ten-year censorship.
“I believe these universities don’t have clean hands,” he said. “In the past decade, they have conducted a review, they have removed speakers, they have implemented micro-aggressive policing, they have violated the right to academic freedom and have not reformed themselves.”
He noted that schools like Harvard had to work on the political neutrality of the public rebound following the October 7 Hamas massacre and anti-Israel University campus protests.
Nevertheless, Perino argues that Trump's efforts to make Harvard less political have surpassed it.
“But yes, when the federal government comes in and tells an institution like Harvard (a private university) that it has to adopt a voice code, teachers must be reviewed, and their disciplinary procedures must be reformed to punish students and faculty – some students and faculty who have been tried for suspected violations, so that could create double-crime problems for these issues – it has caused these issues to cause these crimes, putting them in a difficult situation.
“It installs the federal government as provost and president of these universities,” Perino added.
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The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
