Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner asks if “Obama and others in his political camp” are antisemitic for supporting Harvard
Faulkner: “We can't say whether or not they are, I'm just asking the question”
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From the April 15, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Faulkner Focus
HARRIS FAULKNER (ANCHOR): Former President Barack Obama posted this on X: “Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions -- rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let's hope other institutions follow suit." What is he saying? As a former president, let's hope other institutions drain your cash dollars and fight the current president.
JASON RANTZ (TALK RADIO HOST): Well, and he's just lying about what happens at Harvard. Rigorous debate. One of the issues here was a lack of diversity of viewpoints. So I don't know exactly what it is they're debating, except, I guess, Jewish students say they have the right to exist on campus.
This has nothing to do with academic freedom, certainly not in the traditional sense. Because just a few years ago under the Biden administration, when they decided to redefine Title IX particularly around gender identity issues and gender expression, Harvard didn't send out a blog post and an open letter condemning what this would mean. What they did immediately was draft new policies so that they would comply with the new Title IX rules, so they would maintain federal funding.
And even just stepping back from that, cause this is really about progressive ideology, when BLM made all these demands, Harvard decided to jump through hoops to please them by instituting new DE and I programs, increasing funding.
This has nothing to do with academic freedom. They are being held hostage by ideologues. And I think a lot of folks within the Harvard administration are equally ideologically aligned with folks on the radical left. And so this is just a rejection of anything that is perceived as conservative or is perceived as simply being supported by conservatives. And unfortunately, Jewish students here are going to pay a price, and ultimately --
FAULKNER: So.
RANTZ: -- the students are going to be out of some of the federal funds.
FAULKNER: Would that put former President Obama and others in his political camp -- by the way, he went to Harvard Law School -- you know, pushing against, are they antisemitic? We can't say whether or not they are, I'm just asking the question, because I'm not listening to what they're saying, because I almost don't believe them, because I can see what they're doing.
RANTZ: As a Jew, my response might be different than some others, but I think that if anyone's emboldening or enabling antisemitism, if they're justifying it even for different reasons, I view it as antisemitic. They might not be antisemites themselves, but they are certainly emboldening the antisemitism. And I'm not sure at the end of the day if there is a real difference to me, as to whether or not you're emboldening it or you're an antisemite yourself, because it feels the same way as a Jew.